Category: Book Reviews

By Marc Shaffer

Connections. This book is about connections and their immense value. I tend to think my life is also about connections, which may be why I am so drawn to “Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork,” by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy.

The initial opening of the book is a story about Michael Jordon, who I grew up idolizing as a child as the best basketball player that ever lived. You see, although he was arguably the greatest player, he couldn’t win a championship for his first six years in the NBA.

By Jessica Searcy Kmetty

Sometimes we stumble across a book and it turns out to be really good! I’m thankful that I saw a friend was reading The Energy Bus from a post on Facebook and since I love reading, I wanted to check it out.

The Energy Bus is about a manager who became complacent in his complaining and walking aimlessly through life with a bad attitude. His behavior was sabotaging his success in work, life and his marriage and relationship with his kids. His car breaks down one day and needs to be serviced and he finds himself on public transportation with an enthusiastic group of strangers. It’s a how-to guide for fueling your life, work and organization with positive energy.

By Alex Graham

I received Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck as a gift from my dad a few months after I had graduated college and moved away from home to Portland, Oregon.

This isn’t your classic “self-help” type of book, but a book where Dweck shares her research on the power of our mindset and the physiology/science behind it.

By Marc C. Shaffer

Promptings is a book by Kody Bateman, the founder of a company called SendOutCards. The book’s main premise is to act on impulses as a way to avoid regrets and to create opportunities. So many people have promptings but seldom follow up on them. Some examples of these promptings may be: telling someone you love them, visiting a relative that is sick in the hospital, sending a personal note of gratitude, taking a break, slowing down enough to be thankful. The author founded SendOutCards as a way for many to act on their promptings by making it easy to send greetings cards and gifts to family and friends, building relationships and forging bonds.

By Jessica Searcy Kmetty

Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky is a pretty quick read that is packed with great ideas. It’s all about being intentional and not allowing things you may do by default to hijack your productive time.

The authors provide abundant details, tips and tricks to help you pick and choose what strategies you might utilize in your own life. It also includes a multitude of good ideas we should all probably be doing a better job of: exercise, drink water, watch less TV, get good sleep, etc.

By Brenda Carrico

What does spiritual well-being mean to you? According to an article from HRZone, “Spiritual well-being means the ability to experience and integrate meaning and purpose in life through a person’s connectedness with self, others art, music, literature, nature, or a power greater than oneself.”

If you are already attending services, meditating, spending time in nature or participating in an activity that gives you a sense of peace, well-being and purpose, then you likely understand the importance of incorporating these things into your daily living.

By Jessica Searcy Kmetty

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings―asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass―offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth and learn to give our own gifts in return. – Book Description from Amazon.com

By Jessica Searcy Kmetty

I heard about this book from a group member in a book club I joined last year on Facebook called “The Peanut Blossom Book Club for Recovering Readers.” I figured that since it is January, and she had highly recommended it, I’d give it a try.

By Brenda Carrico

For some people, taking care of their physical wellbeing is a part of life, and for others, it’s one of the biggest challenges. If you’re the type of person who can balance the healthy versus unhealthy food you put in your body – hats off! You’re probably also that person we see riding your bike down the street, going for a walk, lifting weights, or taking a yoga class. Not everyone enjoys exercise, can motivate themselves to keep moving, or finds it easy to control a balanced diet.

By Brenda Carrico

Are you still learning new things on a regular basis? Maybe you’re reading about a subject that you don’t know anything about, or you’ve joined an archeology club for example – credit to you!

Or, are you someone who doesn’t want to, nor feels like you should have to, learn anything new once you reach a certain age? If so, did you know that studies show if you force your brain to learn something unfamiliar that you may be able to stave off or even prevent memory loss and other cognitive issues?

In our industry, so that we can assist our clients with their changing needs as they transition through the different phases of life, we’re constantly learning about aging issues such as elder abuse and the impact that cognitive loss could potentially have on their futures. So, we are advocates for lifelong learning, especially if doing so can protect you against both elder abuse and cognitive decline.