The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you.  ~Ecclesiastes 12:12-13

Yesterday I turned 25 years old. That’s crazy! Someone once said, “Life is like toilet paper, the closer to the end you get, the faster it goes!” That’s a fact!

I spent some time reflecting on the 25 years of my life. What are the greatest lessons I’ve learned? What are my favorite memories? Greatest accomplishments? Favorite relationships?

I came down to one conclusion. The greatest thing about my life is my relationship with God. All I could keep saying to myself yesterday is “God’s been so good to me.”

Choosing to pursue a relationship with God was the best decision I’ve ever made. Everything in my life has stemmed from making that decision.

He’s opened up doors nobody else could open, given me unbelievable experiences, connected me with some of the greatest people on the planet, and above anything else, He’s allowed me to have an amazing relationship with Him.

I’ve lived without God, and with God, and there is no comparison.

My Conclusion: The only life worth living is one passionately pursuing God with everything in you.

If you’re reading this, and you’ve never experienced God in the way I’m talking about, you’re missing out! He longs to have a relationship with you. He longs to do amazing things in your life. He loves you. I’d love to talk to you about how you can start a relationship with Him. Feel free to e-mail me at bsmith@lifeatvictory.com or leave me a message on Facebook.

This book came at the recommendation of a friend over coffee. This was an incredible book. Viktor Frankl is a Jewish psychiatrist that lived in concentration camps for three years. The first half of the book is a detailed account of his experiences in the concentration camps. The second half of the book is all about the psychology of man’s search for meaning.

Frankl’s conclusion is that once a man finds meaning for his life, he is able to find hope in any situation, and able to get through anything. He talks a lot about the people who survived in concentration camps in comparison with those who didn’t make it. Often, the people who didn’t make it, could not find meaning in the midst of their suffering, while the people who survived, could and did.

I’d recommend this book to everyone. It will give you hope, and allow you to recognize that regardless of what you’re going through, you can find meaning in your life and find the strength to go on!

Buy it here!

Highlights:

• “man is responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of his life.”

• At any moment,  man must decide, for better or for worse, what will be the monument of his existence.

• Man does  not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be,  what he will become in the next moment.

• freedom is in danger of degenerating   into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.

• There is nothing conceivable which would so condition a  man as to leave him without the slightest freedom.

• There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so
  effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as  the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.

• “He who has a why  to live for can bear almost any how.”

• man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure  or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.

• The crowning experience of all, for the homecoming man,  is the wonderful feeling that, after all he has suffered, there is  nothing he need fear any more-except his God.

• They died less from  lack of food or medicine than from lack of hope, lack of something   to live for.

• The truth-that love  is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.

• No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty   whether in a similar situation he might not have done  the same.

John Maxwell said that when he read this book in his mid twenties, it changed the way he lead forever. Why? Because until he read this book, he led under the assumption that everybody was like him. That he could lead everybody the same way he led himself. He read this book and recognized that he would have to learn to lead people in different ways based on their personality. Needless to say, I had to read this book!

This is definitely a book I’m going to come back to time and time again. Learning the temperaments to the extent that I’ll be able to identify what all my leaders are, and learn to lead them based off their personality!

This book focuses on 4 personality temperaments:

Sanguine - The outgoing social butterfly! (I’m a Sanguine off the Charts!)

Melancholy – Perfectionists, Detail Oriented, always serious.

Choleric - Born leader. Achiever. Take Charge!

Peaceful Phlegmatic - “The Leveler” – Easy Going. Go with the flow. Indecisive.

This book will teach you a lot about yourself and the people around you. Once you read this, the things that irritate you with other personality types, won’t bother you as much. You’ll learn it’s just part of their personality and you can learn to get along with them, in spite of the things that drive you nuts about them!

I’d recommend this book to anyone!