Grounded by Bob Rosen

Grounded: How Leaders Stay Rooted in an Uncertain World by Bob Rosen

Genre: Leadership and Business

            Life is a series of interconnecting points.  People, places, and actions come and go, converging and diverging at different seasons of life.  Every once in a while a book crosses your path at the perfect time, it’s wisdom converging with your strive to learn at just the right time and place.  Grounded was that for me.

            The lessons from Grounded are not the smoothest nor the most original, but they cut deep to the core of what our world needs: genuine leadership in a chaotic world.

            Genuine leadership is holistic, driven by integrity, and achieved by the emotionally intelligent.  Genuine leadership understands that to lead people, you must first be able to lead yourself.  Genuine leadership is about balance and the ability to view your people as your most valuable asset in achieving success, and not just as cogs in the big corporate machine.

            Grounded is about living a life of curiosity, being authentic to yourself and others, and letting go of ego in favor of confidence.  Confidence not just in yourself but also in others, in what you are trying to achieve, and in the world around you.

            The steady winds of change uproot all of those who are not rooted in strong and well-balanced ground, engaging those around you to grow beyond what even they think they are capable of.

Golden Nuggets:

-       “Your brain becomes accustomed to handling challenges to your emotional life.  It’s like the immune system – it gets stronger as it’s exposed to more challenges and contaminants and while learning to adapt.”  P. 95

-       “If you have a growth mindset, you see life as a journey that requires continual growth along the way.  With this attitude, you seek out new experiences, regularly broaden your knowledge and abilities, and remain open to change and new ideas.” P. 119

-       “With lifelong learning, life becomes an adventure, giving us something to look forward to, a purpose and goal.  It is life with no regrets.”  P. 192

-       “An irony of life is that we all possess a higher purpose, yet many of use have no idea what it is.”  P. 219

Rating: 5/5 Bookmarks

http://bobrosen.com/books/grounded/overview/

The Brain that Changes Itself

The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, MD

Genre: some might call it "Self-Help" but I refuse to apply that title to books due to the negative associations it musters.  I refer to this book as "Psychology, Neuroscience, and Lifestyle."

I'm no medical expert, not to mention neuroscience, so I put a lot of stock in books written by MDs.  The Brain that Changes itself is a sometimes fascinating, sometimes over my head analysis of "Brain Science" history chocked full of great tidbits for the average person.  I'm a bit of a non-fiction nut, so if you share that passion this book will be right up your alley.

At times I skimmed through 20-40 pages that, while peaking my interest, didn't really offer much in the way of insight.  Other times I couldn't put down my pen, taking notes on how to keep my brain young, how to overcome addictions and bad habits, and other extremely useful golden nuggets.  I try to find the golden nuggets that I can add to my mental library from every book, so if you're patient and an adept speed-reader I highly recommend this book.

Golden Nuggets:
-  "To keep the mind alive requires learning something truly new with intense focus." p.88
-  "The more we have, the more socially and physically active we are, and the more we participate in mentally stimulating activities, the less likely we are to get Alzheimer's disease or dementia...Those [activities] that involve genuine concentration - studying a musical instrument, playing board games, reading, [studying a foreign language], and dance - are associated with a lower risk of dementia." p.254
-  "Television watching, one of the signature activities of our culture, correlates with brain problems...For every hour of TV the toddlers watched each day, their chances of developing serious attentional difficulties at age seven increased 10%." p.307

Please do yourself a favor, put down the TV remote and pick up this book.  As you age it may save your life.

Rating: 4.5 bookmarks (out of 5)

http://www.normandoidge.com/normandoidge.com/MAIN.html