The Social Animal – David Brooks

“Most of what we think and believe is unavailable to conscious view. We are our own deepest mystery.”

Thoughts:

The Social Animal is the most intriguing book I have read in the past few years. This is true from the standpoints of both content and style.
Content: The basic premise of the book’s content is that the unconcious mind – evolved, genetically, and learned – has a greater effect on our lives than most people have been willing to acknowledge.

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I am Resolved…

While I am not the type to make a new year’s resolution, the beginning of each year is a good time to check my dreams, aspirations and goals to see if life is on track; after-all, “your direction, not your intention, determines your destination.” (Andy Stanley). As I considered the achievements of 2010 and what comes next, an overwhelming sense of the need to address the spiritual focus of my life flooded my soul.

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10 Thoughts Worth Considering

These quotes come from my scattered reading and research over the last month. Each has given me pause and caused a time of personal reflection and sincere thought.

1. “Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds.” – Albert Einstein
2. “Fashion is the law of multitudes, but it is nothing more than the common consent of fools.” – Charles Spurgeon
3. “Let me write the songs of a nation; I don’t care who writes its laws.” – Andrew Fletcher
4. “Read one thinker and you become a clone. Read two and you become confused. Read a hundred and you start to become wise.” – C.S. Lewis

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True Progress

I am always on the go. I love productivity. Making progress towards my personal, professional and spiritual goals is a type of obsession in life. Slowing down, much less taking a step back, causes great stress for me. This is probably why I have often had a difficult time admitting mistakes. It’s not the result of arrogance, but the fact that my mistakes are usually much greater than the average follies of others. You see, I take pride in my efforts to carefully plan and calculate my activities. I even seek consistent control over my emotions. Therefore, my mistakes are rarely the foolish failures of life – mine are true miscalculations in judgement.

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Review of Blink – Malcolm Gladwell

Blink is a book that seeks to give insight into our intuition. What is it that a man thinks when he is not conscious of his thought? and why? Can our first impressions be trusted? Though I did enjoy much of the insight gained from this book, I do not believe it will have the lasting effect on my life that his surrounding works, Tipping Point and Outliers, have. Nonetheless, well worth the read.