Book Review: Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently

I just finished reading Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham. Buckingham is well-known for his work with several companies and leaders in the area of identifying and developing your strengths. I previously read another of his books Now, Discover Your Strengths. This book was given to me for free as a part of the Book Review Blogging Program through Thomas Nelson.

To be honest with you, I have had this book for several weeks and have had a hard time getting into it. First of all, I was a little surprised to see a book geared towards helping women that was authored by a man. However, I was willing to give Buckingham a break since he is married and probably knows a lot of women. I have to imagine that he has tested out some of his theories on those ladies. I also wasn’t expecting much due to the fact that Oprah has endorsed this book on her show. That doesn’t really mean a lot to me.

Buckingham’s website says that you should buy the book and discover…

How to make the most of the role you were born to play.
How to get others to understand who you really are.
The successful strategies of other women like you.

The thesis of the book proposes that modern women have it all. In the past four decades, women have secured better job prospects, greater acknowledgement for achievement, wider influence, more free time, and higher salaries. And yet, recent studies reveal that women have gradually become less happy than they were 40 years ago, and less happy than men—and unlike men, they grow sadder as they get older. Does this mean that women should return to a world of fewer choices and opportunities? On the contrary, what we have learned provides an opportunity to answer some key questions about the needs of women now. What is the future for women in America? At work, at home, and in life, how can they find deeper fulfillment and joy? And how do we empower our young daughters and today’s 25- and 30-year-olds to make certain they don’t face the same dilemma?

Find Your Strongest Life was born out of a need to respond to questions such as these. The book challenges ingrained myths about women, tackles the paradox of declining female happiness, and demonstrates that the happiest and most successful women:

Don’t agonize over who they aren’t—they accept and act on who they are. They have discovered the role they were born to play and they play it.
Don’t juggle—they catch-and-cradle. They don’t keep things at bay, but select a few things and draw them in close.
Don’t strive for balance—they strive for fullness. They intentionally imbalance their lives toward those moments that make them feel strong.
Always sweat the small stuff—They know and act on the specific details of what invigorates them (and they let go of what doesn’t strengthen them).

This book is a good read. I wouldn’t say a great read because there isn’t a ton of new stuff in here, but it might be a great gift for a young lady you know that desires to grow as a leader. I would have liked to have seen some biblical integration, but I realize that Buckingham works with tons of secular companies and it is easier to stick with more vanilla concepts. However, what I am looking for is more than covered in Proverbs 31.

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