⏱️ You must take (and avoid) risk

I. It is profoundly ignorant to state the following:

“I can never believe in a God who allows X to happen, because if God were good, he would never allow that to happen.”

In this scenario, one must assume that they know everything there is to know. Only if you know everything can you make such a judgment.

While it is true that we may not be able to conceive why God allowed X to happen, what we cannot do is say there is no plausible reason, because we don’t know everything.

Therefore, this logic must follow:

This does not mean we can’t have doubts or question why a certain thing has happened.

But it does mean we cannot claim it proves God does not exist.

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II. To be successful, you have to take risks.

To survive and thrive, you have to avoid risks that can sabotage you.

If you never take any risks, you’ll never progress. Take the wrong risks, and you may never recover fully.

Navigating this tension is the key to progress.

I. Philosopher Laozi reminds us of the power of acting early:

“Deal with the difficult while it is yet easy;
Deal with the great while it is yet small.”

II. Marissa Mayer, an early employee at Google and eventual CEO of Yahoo, on how she grew throughout her career:

“I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow — when there’s that moment of, ‘Wow, I’m really not sure I can do this,’ and you push through.”

Build the Life You Want by Arthur C. Brooks & Oprah Winfrey

A book about creating a more fulfilling life. I’m fairly confident this book was primarily written by Arthur Brooks, with some thoughts from Oprah Winfrey added in.

That said, this is not a “just believe and everything will work out” kind of book. Brooks does a good job discussing happiness, why no one can remain in a constant state of it, and instead focuses on how to build a life that equips you to handle whatever comes your way.

Overall, it’s not a bad book. Personally, I didn’t find it very engaging, but that could be because I already enjoy my life and wasn’t actively seeking strategies to improve it; I just picked it up based on recommendations I saw.

I do think it could be helpful for some, especially those going through a tough season or dealing with relational struggles.

For me, I definitely finished the book just to finish it. Many of the concepts weren’t new, and I didn’t walk away with much that I wanted to apply.

5.5/10

P.S. Do you want to be cremated alive?