[I received a review copy of this book from Gallery Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary and Review
The author’s third book, after The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation, looks at resilience. Resilience is the ability to keep moving forward no matter what comes – success, failure, or more of the daily grind.
Mr. Pasricha says there are nine secrets to resilience including
- shifting the spotlight from a focus on yourself,
- seeing failure as a step toward your future, and
- reframing your story.
A good bit of the advice falls into the category of reframing your circumstances which is a strategy I have always found helpful when facing trials.
As an optimist by nature (sometimes to the annoyance of my family), I enjoy books like this. I find them affirming and encouraging. I enjoyed the personal stories the author shared here (generally one story per secret, although several of them built on one another across the whole book). Those show that he knows what he’s talking about from experience. I feel like the conversational tone of this will appeal to readers. He also cites several studies to back up his assertions, which I also appreciate in a self-help book.
My favorite chapter was Secret #4: Tell Yourself a Different Story. The reframing here is obvious, but Mr. Pasricha asks three interesting questions to help readers with that process. I especially enjoyed the pages where he digs into those questions.
I read this because the topic of building resilience is fascinating to me as a parent, a former teacher, and someone who still works with kids. I wasn’t personally looking for solutions to the struggles addressed by the book. Yet I found several take-aways here. I believe the target audience will find many as well.
I do wonder, though, if folks who are less optimistic by nature will enjoy this as much as I did. I can think of some people who could benefit from the material here, but who might eye-roll their way past some of the secrets. As with any self-help book, though, you will get out of it what you put into it. If you are searching for techniques and strategies to adjust your thinking about challenges and failures – as well as keeping successes and opportunities in perspective – you will find some here! (Some language)