We are always getting ready to live, but never living. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wake up! That’s been something I’ve been telling myself for years. Wake up, wake up, wake up. Be aware. Be present. Embrace today. Do your best. Be real. Authentic. Live.
Today I’m blessed to share with you about The Charge, written by Brendon Burchard, a book that embraces living awake and reigniting your life. In my opinion? Brendon gets it. He gets the importance of living an authentic, gratitude-filled, and purposeful life.{And at the end of this post there’s a link where you can get The Charge for free – just pay shipping/handling.}
He wants to live awake, alive, caring and his desire is that he inspires others to do the same. The last years in my life have been this quest to live a joy-filled intentional life that is not dependent upon circumstances to make me happy. It’s been this wrestling, this tug and pull between myself and my emotions and my faith that in the end has become a surrender and also an embracing of today.
Blogfrog contacted me in June asking if I’d be interested in reviewing this book. My first thought? No. I don’t have time. What do I need to learn? {yep, seriously.} Nothing can change {ah, an old pattern designed to keep my stuck}. Then I pondered it just a bit more – I talked with my husband about it {he told me go for it}, I looked at the website. I was intrigued.Something that Brendon was speaking was resonating with me and I wanted to hear {and read} more. Maybe, just maybe I was to carve a bit of time in my summer schedule to read this book. So I signed on.
I thought I’d skim it.
Then I read those words – Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter?
Forget skimming. It wasn’t a fluffy bubblegum and cotton candy approach to fixing your life in ten easy steps that can be completed in just 30 minutes a day over the next 21 days for three easy installments of $19.95. Nope. The Charge? It made me think and ponder my life and take notes and draw calendars and get on my knees in prayer and mull over my actions, words and choices.
In order to fully read his book I needed to invest time – my time – and really listen to what Brendon was writing. So no skimming. I pulled out my notebook and began to scribble down thoughts – be more intentional, less of this, what makes me afraid, live awake, be congruent, care – and kept writing, and writing, and writing.
You see, The Charge isn’t going to sugar coat life and offer you this pickup solution to your problems that by the time you’re done reading chapter 3 that you think this will never work. It’s not about working and implementing a system. It’s about change. And getting life back into life. No candy tactics, but rather it’s one of those wake up call moments that we all wish we had but often we don’t have anyone who is bold enough to tell us enough and get up and get living and be grateful.
You’ve read my words about living a life awake and how for me, living a finding joy type life involves being present – in the good and the bad and the everyday. You also know that I’m a believer and I believe that the Lord desires the same from us. When I read the parable of the talents I believe the servant who buried his talents did so out of fear – it was as if he was afraid of messing up and thus squandered his time, his charge – and that the Lord is pushing us to not only be wise with the time that we are given but also that we are aware, awake, and present with the time given. But, culture has this amazing ability to lull us asleep mentally even in the incredible busy frenzy of information.
We can’t live a full life if we are half asleep. Think of those batteries — my kids complain and don’t want the wii remote battery that is blinking red. They get it – it won’t last. They all vie for the four bars filled fully charged remote.
That’s how I want to live – 4 bars awake – charged – using my mind, talents, and time to the best of my ability and to give glory to the Lord in all I do.
The Charge is a wake up call. Look at your life. Examine it. Don’t let life race by and don’t make excuses for everything that you think you can’t do. In it Brendon covers what he believes are 10 Drives that make us feel awake. Alive. He then gives very personal descriptions about each drive and then offers examples on how to restart them. At the end of each chapter are three questions {take time to do them – again you cannot skim this book} that allow you, the reader, to truly delve into what he is stating.
I recommend the book. I know many of you share my passion for living this intentional, joy-filled and purposeful life. I know that I needed the nudging, the wake up call, the person in my face {well, he wasn’t over, but man would I love an hour sit down with him, Brendon, did you read that? Feel free to contact me and I’ll be right over} telling me to stop making excuses and to just really live type of reminders. That’s right – live. Truly live.
Take the time. Read it. Wake up. Live.
Want a copy? It’s only $16. But, today, since this is a sponsored conversation you can get a copy for free {simply pay shipping and handling}.
Order your freecopy of The Charge today! {simply pay shipping and handling}
Share with me {use the comment box embedded} what makes you feel most alive for a chance to win a High Performance Academy Online Seminar with Brendon Burchard, author of The Charge(valued at $1,000).
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Burchard Group Sponsored Conversation. The opinions and text are all mine.
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