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!

In a matter of 3 months Mark Batterson has become one of my favorite authors. In fact, I may just go out on the limb and say he is my favorite! After reading his books I feel like I can do anything, risk anything, and be everything God called me to be.

I’d highly encourage you to read all of his books! You’ll be stretched in your faith and encouraged to go after the dreams God has put in your heart.

Some Highlights:

• God is in the business of strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time. But here’s the catch: The right place often seems like the wrong place, and the right time often seems like the wrong time.
• Sometimes God won’t intervene until something is humanly impossible. And He usually does it just in the nick of time. I think that pattern reveals one dimension of God’s personality: God loves impossible odds.
• Your best thought about God on your best day falls 12.3 billion light-years short of how great and how good God really is.
• God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go.
• “Don’t accumulate possessions; accumulate experiences!”
• Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshiping what’s right with God.
• I’m convinced that the people God uses the most are often the people who have experienced the most adversity.
• God is in the business of recycling our pain and using it for someone else’s gain.
• spiritual maturity is less about figuring out the future and more about a moment-by-moment sensitivity to the Spirit of God.
• I’m convinced that the only thing between you and your destiny is one small act of courage.
• Playing it safe is risky.
• Why is it that the church is known more for what we’re against than what we’re for?
• More often than not, the only thing between you and your dream is a rational excuse.
• One dimension of spiritual growth is simply coming to terms with who we are and who we’re not.

Pastor Nathan introduced me to Napoleon Hill! This guys is amazing. Think and Grow Rich is a project that Andrew Carnegie had Napoleon take on. Andrew Carnegie asked Napoleon to study the top 50 wealthiest men in the world at that time. I believe Napoleon said it took him twenty years to write this book. He spent 20 years writing this book! Studying the lifestyles of the wealthiest men in the world. He found a lot of common factors on how these men became successful and rich. This book the outcome of his research.

Biggest Takeaway: The major factor in all of these men’s lives was faith. An unwavering confidence that no matter what, they would be successful. I thought it was interesting how much faith is a factor.

To be honest, I have to go back and reread this book at least another 3-4 times before the principles will even start to stick and be applied in my life. This is a must read book. In fact I’d make it a must read 3-4 times book.

Some Highlights:

• One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.

• It taught me to keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be, a lesson I needed to learn before I could succeed in anything.

• Christianity is the greatest potential power in the world today, because its founder was an intense dreamer who had the vision and the imagination to see realities in their mental and spiritual form before they had been transmuted into physical form.

• If you are influenced by the opinions of others, you will have no DESIRE of your own.

• The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going.

• Love is, without question, life’s greatest experience.

• Man’s greatest motivating force is his desire to please woman!

• NO MAN IS HAPPY OR COMPLETE WITHOUT THE MODIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE RIGHT WOMAN.

• If you neglect to make the start, or stop before you arrive, no one will be to blame, but YOU. This responsibility is yours.

• The fear of criticism robs man of his initiative, destroys his power of imagination, limits his individuality, takes away his self-reliance, and does him damage in a hundred other ways.

• A busy person seldom has time to think about dying. He finds life too thrilling to worry about death.

• “The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.”