Book Review of The Compassionate Achiever
by Sandra Bourland
“Compassion grows when we talk less and listen more.”
Talk about a wake up call. When I began reading the book I was worried that I wouldn’t find it interesting. I’ll be honest, I’m not much of a fan of non fiction books, self help etc. I find them boring, I find the material dry and I lose interest pretty fast.
But that one sentence above stopped me dead in my tracks. Funny enough I was watching an episode of Dr Phil where he told one of his guests, that if you immediately reply to someone, or cut them off while they’re speaking, then you weren’t listening at all, you weren’t even trying to understand what they were saying because you were too busy formulating a response to them.
GUILTY!!!!
Not of doing it all the time, but there have certainly been many instances where I acted this exact way.
The Compassionate Achiever goes right to the core of the issue, it provides practical ways in which we can learn to be compassionate even when we’re not in a compassionate state of mind. The author calls it “taking a WIRL (walk, imagine, read and listen).” Boy did that smack me right in the face.
I couldn’t put the book down because I realized that I learned so much about the way I interact with family and friends, what I’m doing right, what I’m doing wrong, and what I can learn to do better. Life would be so much easier if we all became more compassionate towards others, and to do that we have to reach inside ourselves and start with US.
What a wonderful concept. I can’t wait to implement some of these ideas into my own life and see how it changes everything around me 🙂
Original review can be found at the Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.
Chris is Professor of Political Science at Western Connecticut State University, a Fulbright Scholar, Director of the Kathwari Honors Program, and founding Director of the Center for Compassion, Creativity & Innovation. He is also the author of "The Compassionate Achiever: How Helping Others Fuels Success" (HarperOne, 2017).
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