Three Books I’m Grateful for in 2015

by

Books-I'm-Grateful-for-in-2015_Web

I thought I’d wrap the final day of the year with a blog on my favorite books of the last twelve months. I’ve read a lot of great books this year – fiction, non-fiction, and business, but three of them stand out as great reads that I’m truly grateful for reading. None of them are “business” books, but they all evolved my perspective on work and life. I will read every one of these books again, when the time is right.

“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl

I wasn’t around when my book club selected this book, so when I started reading it on a plane, I didn’t even know it was non-fiction, since my book club rarely reads non-fiction. When I realized it was a memoir of Frankl’s time in four different Nazi death camps, I braced myself for a very depressing read. By the time I landed, I was surprised to find I actually felt lighter and happier, with a new perspective on “meaning”. I called my father, a retired philosophy professor to see what he knew about this book. He laughed and said he used it in one of his courses for forty years. I was not ready for that in college or even graduate school. But a few years after forty, after getting married and having kids and wondering about the meaning of life, this book hit the spot. Honestly, I’m not sure what I got exactly other than a sense of peace, but I will definitely read it again next time I’m feeling a little lost.

“10% Happier” by Dan Harris

Over the summer, I read Dan Harris’ story about discovering meditation. I have since nicknamed this book: “how meditation can help you be a bad-ass”. I have attempted meditation for years, but have always left all my resolutions at the yoga retreat, since it never seemed to fit into my action packed life. For me, this book and the Headspace app on my phone have finally gotten me into a somewhat regular meditation practice that has helped me be “10% Happier”. I found Harris’ writing to be extremely engaging, weaving his personal story and his pursuit of a meditation practice into interesting commentary on contemporary religious movements. It was a joy to read, probably my favorite of all the books I read this year.

“How to Raise an Adult” by Julie Lythcott-Haims

I just finished this Christmas gift yesterday. The critics say this is a great book to read if you have teenagers; I am so grateful I read it now before my kids get one day older. It is well-written and backed by engaging stories and shocking statistics. Building on what I have already embraced from Love and Logic, Lythcott-Haims convinced me to get comfortable with being uncomfortable letting my kids fail at the little things, that way they slowly become ready for bigger and bigger challenges. I could clearly connect how what I was doing today would impact my children’s abilities to function as adult, not only to be “successful” in work and life, but also just to feel purpose and be happy. I am so grateful for this book. Hopefully my father will forgive me for the mess I’ve been letting my kids make running the hand mixer on the brownies and painting with marbles in the workshop.

 

READ MORE

The Magic of Mortals

The Magic of Mortals

Daily we wake up to new developments in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Across sectors and industries, automated solutions prove highly successful in surpassing the capacity of the human brain for certain tasks, improving...

read more
Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leaders have been trying to crack the code on talent development for years. Recent studies have shown, however, that strength-focused leadership [read: intentionally elevating the qualities that already come naturally to us] is the clear winner for developing talent...

read more
Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

  Listen to any earnings call or executive presentation and you will likely hear the terms “top line” and “bottom line.” These are words used to describe a business’s performance. According to Investopedia, the words are defined as follows: Top line refers to the...

read more
Your Personality Is Showing

Your Personality Is Showing

There I was, minding my own business one evening, digging into my organization's SEO performance (as one does), when I came across something interesting. Search terms related to "MBTI" — or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel...

read more
Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Hello. My name is Monique, and I’m a change manager who hates change.   After years of receiving “consulting therapy” from various mentors, I am now able to say these words out loud and proudly. But for a long time, it felt more like an admission of guilt. I mean, who...

read more
Creativity as a Cure

Creativity as a Cure

The topic of creative solutioning has been front and center these days as we talk more and more about organizational adaptability in the face of dynamic and uncertain times. For example, I recently read about a project that got me thinking about specific priorities...

read more
Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Big news over here as we close out the year - we have been acquired by Pariveda, a 750-person consulting firm in 12 markets across North America! We are now “Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company” and I’ll be serving as the Managing Vice President continuing to lead...

read more
Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Dallas, December 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pariveda, a leader specializing in solving complex technology and business problems, announces the acquisition of Thought Ensemble. With the addition of Thought Ensemble, Pariveda now provides holistic business strategy,...

read more
Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

It was about a year ago that we first started hearing about Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (SB19-085) and I knew it was going to be national news. We’d just gotten past the “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, and our lovely state was trying to break new ground...

read more