Creative Living for Today by Maxwell Maltz

Maltz, Maxwell.  Creative Living for Today.  1967.  New York: Pocket Books, 1973.

Maxwell Maltz is known for his self-help books, especially Psycho-Cybernetics.  He got into the field because of observations he made as a plastic surgeon.  He found that the change in appearance he created brought about a transformation in some, freeing them to be happy, engaged people.  Others were just as depressed and disappointed after the surgery as before.  The difference, he decided, was self-image.

In Creative Living for Today, Maltz encourage people to have a positive, realistic self-image.  He says life should be lively: creative, interesting, engaging, adventurous.  For too many, life is dull, disconnected, and fearful.  We can choose which kind of life we lead, and it is largely a matter of how we think about ourselves.

Maltz intends the book to be practical inspiration for living the good life.  In it, he offers advice on how to practically improve your self-image and your life.

Goals are very important to Maltz. Large and small, long-term and daily, goals give us something to move toward.  Goals and self-image have an effect on each other.  To pursue a goal, we must be able to image we can achieve it.  Achieving challenging, realistic goals strengthens our self-image as people who can succeed.  In addition, activity and productivity is pleasurable in itself.  Endeavor to enjoy what you do.

Engagement is another major issue for the author.  To withdraw from life, and especially to isolate yourself from other people, is to separate yourself from pleasure.  Relationships with people are some of the greatest things we can enjoy.  Admittedly, life and relationships can be difficult, but that is something we all face.  Maltz argues that engagement is good, even necessary, and if we see ourselves as capable of living well and having good relationships even in the face of difficulties, which he says is true, then our self-image will help us live it.

Maltz doesn’t present a world where we can have perfection if we just think right.  Everybody gets hurt; we all have emotional scars.  Maturity is learning to accept this imperfect world and living creatively in it.  We must occasionally create some mental space for ourselves to be refreshed so we can engage life with energy, learn to forgive ourselves and others, and constantly tend our self-image.

Maltz illustrates his points with many stories.  Most of these come from his own life, sometimes his dealings with patients, but often drawing on other experiences.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Attitude is Everything by Jeff Keller

Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar

The Velveteen Principles by Toni Raiten-D’Antonio

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Old Testament History

The historical books of the Old Testament (the first 17 books in the typical organization of Christian Bibles) tell the story of the rise and fall of the Israelite nation. The big chunks of history are organized in this manner:

1- Founding the nation and receiving the Law (the Pentateuch, which includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy),

--The conquest and early settlement of Canaan (Joshua and Judges),

3-The early roots of a kingdom in Israel (Ruth and I Samuel),

4-The Israelite Kingdom (II Samuel, I and II Kings, I and II Chronicles), and

5-The end of captivity and rebuilding of Jerusalem (Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther).

The books are not organized in a strictly chronological order. In addition, there are overlaps and gaps.

A theme that runs through the books is the active engagement of God. He is engaged in all of His creation, and particularly in the history of the Israelite nation. He called them out to be His people, he caused them to rise and prosper as a nation, and when they turned away from them, He brought them low.

Another theme in these books is the importance of moral leadership. When the nation had morally upright leaders, the people tended to also be morally upright. When the leaders were selfish, greedy, lustful, and following false gods, the people followed them into every kind of sin. We are strongly influenced by others, especially our leaders.

The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN:  Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Move by Rosabeth Moss Canter

The major elements of America’s transportation infrastructure and policy frameworks are six decades old (or older in the case rail). We haven’t even kept up with the maintenance since then. In addition to taking care of what we have, we need to adapt to the changes in technology, culture and the economy that have occurred. Our policies haven’t been keeping up.

In Move, Harvard business professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter explores how we got here and how we can move forward. We got here by adopting a defense-oriented policy that emphasized cars (especially interstate highways) and air travel, largely ignoring rail, public transit and intermodal development.

The path forward has several elements. First is a focus on mobility. Transportation infrastructure is a technical, bureaucratic realm of deep silos. Mobility changes the focus to moving people and products around communities and the nation in whatever ways make sense. Physical mobility and economic mobility are tied, and if we want to strengthen our economic leadership on the world stage, we need to break down internal policy barriers to advancing the way people move.

That means developing a national strategy. Of course, a rigid approach won’t work because we have varied nation. However, national priorities and frameworks can make room for regional priorities, adaption and leadership.

Money is always in issue. There are potentials in public-private partnership (PPP), and that can be arranged in many ways. America has a world-leading freight rail system that has very limited public investment. Airports are generally owned by governments, and attempts to privatize them have meet a cool response from possible investors. However, there are examples of successful PPPs in which there is something for everybody.

I already mentioned that technology has come a long way in the past several decades, especially in the realm of communication and data analysis. Some transportation industries, such as airlines, are taking advantage of the opportunities in new technology, while other are lagging. There are many ways our transportation system can be smarter, and we need sensible ways of incorporating technology in ways that are safe without losing out on the benefits through unnecessary delays.

This requires leadership and vision, especially in government. Politicians are often motivated by short-term wins, but mobility is a long-term investment. We need leaders who can see passed the next election and the boundaries of party.

Finally, citizen engagement is important. Plans can quickly fail if the people who are going to use, pay for and otherwise feel the ultimate effects of new transportation policies and infrastructure are not informed, involved and empowered to take action that works for them.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Big Roads by Earl Swift

Bottled Lightning by Seth Fletcher

1939 by David Gelernter

The Powerhouse by Steve Levine

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. Move: Putting America’s Infrastructure Back in the Lead. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015.

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard

Bayard, Pierre. How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read. Trans. Jeffrey Mehlman. New York: Bloomsbury, 2007.

Regarding talking about books you haven’t read, Pierre Bayard might echo the Nike slogan, “Just do it.” Books are so much a part of a larger culture, so quickly forgotten and so interpreted through the internal experiences of readers that having read one brings little advantage to discussing it.

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read has three major parts, possibly an accidental homage to the lessons of a composition class. Bayard considers the issue of reading and non-reading (and how hard it is to tell one from the other), the social context of talking about non-read books and offers a new model for discussing books.

Reading is largely a matter of non-reading. We can’t possibly read every book there is, so the choice to read some is necessarily a choice to not read others, and a cultured person may choose to not read any of them. We may read every page or skim, and skimming may be a better way to understand a book as a whole. Even when we read a book, we immediately start to forget it. We hear about books we haven’t read.

This puts us in the position of talking about books we haven’t read (at all, or just skimmed, or forgot) whenever we discuss books. Bayard describes several such social situations, throughout building a case that what we really end up discussing is virtual book, made up of our own internal conceptions of the book and its place in the common library of our culture (including other books we probably haven’t read). He argues that we can’t exactly discuss a book because of all the factors of non-reading. Instead, a book becomes a pretext for discussion, a mental place for building common ground for communication (or so completely devoid of common understanding that people end up talking to themselves in exchanges with others).

In light of all of this, Bayard recommends laying aside the grade school shame of non-reading and discussing books anyway. He carries this pretty far, arguing that books are not fixed and we invent books out of our non-reading rather that discuss the books themselves. Discussions about books are really means of discovering and expressing ourselves.

Bayard can make our interactions with books seem so abstract and subjective that it may truly be best to not read them at all. Since he is a literature professor and an author, he probably doesn’t want people to actually go that far. His point is to get away from a narrow view of books and reading that limits the way people talk about them and move toward more creative and cultured engagement.

Into the Depths of God by Calvin Miller

Miller, Calvin. Into the Depths of God. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2000.

I’ve wanted to read this book again since the first time I read it. I’m not sure why I was drawn back to a book that challenged me to live a kind of life I wasn’t leading, nor is it easy. Even so, I hunger and thirst for God, like every other Christian, and find myself seeking more of the One for whom my heart most yearns.

Miller begins by challenging worldliness. He puts it more elegantly than that. We live in an age of that values pleasure, material wealth, and making the most of the moment. Even spirituality is focused on how it makes us feel good, though it is rarely so blunt. The alternative to these things is a deeper relationship with the One who satisfies because of who He is.

I’m particularly challenged by Millers take on self-denial. He is far from ascetic. If anything, he is an advocate of art, desire, engagement, and action. Self-denial for a Christian isn’t about the sins we give up (though we should eschew sin); it’s about the things we take up as part of the new life we have. We love God more than any other thing. We see to please Him and obey him rather than to please people. We seek His will instead of ours.



This kind of godliness, this ravenous hunt for more of God, does not make use remote from the world. It draws us into the work God is doing in the world. Christ took on humanity and entered our world to save people and part of what He want His saved people to do is continue the work of saving people until He comes again. I’m reminded of how Jesus said he saw the work His Father was doing and He did the same work. That is how Christians are supposed to be. Each of has a calling; we see some work our Father is doing and we are to do it to as imitators of our savior.

It’s not dogged work. It should be joyous living. Whatever we do, we should do with as much excellence, beauty and art as we can because we are in a relationship with the most beautiful One, the author of beauty in nature and the ultimate inspiration for beauty in art. A Christian’s calling is the most imaginative, creative and fulfilling thing he can do.

It is not an easy life to live. It goes against the grain of the world. It takes us out of the insular coziness churches. We must face truths than can make us uncomfortable. We must humbly acknowledge God and our need for Him in everything.

I fear I’ve made it sound esoteric. Focusing on intimacy with God who is infinite, but deigned to take on humanity and suffer the punishment for our sins so we could have an eternal relationship with Him, seems a world away from helping our neighbors in need, serving the sick, and standing up for the oppressed. Yet in deeper living, these seemingly disparate things are intimately linked. When we abide in Christ, He enables us to live this life of service, and in working close to Him this way, we deepen our relationship with him.

It’s rare for me to read a book twice. I think I could read Into the Depths of God a third time and get more out of it. It whets my appetite for God.

You can find my previous, brief review of this book here.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis
The Joy of Supernatural Thinking by Bill Bright
Walking with God by John Eldredge

Vital Friends by Tom Rath

Rath, Tom. Vital Friends. New York: Gallup Press, 2006.

Do we need scientific research to tell us that friends make us more happy, healthy, engaged, and productive? Apparently we do, at least in the context of work.


Tom Rath describes the work he and his associates at The Gallup Organization have undertaken to study friendship and identify important friendship roles in his book Vital Friends. He uses the term vital friend to describe someone who significantly improves your life, who you wouldn’t want to live without, to distinguish him or her from less close friends or acquaintances.

Rath begins with a discussion of friendship in general. He describes the benefits of friendship to human health and happiness.

From there he moves into friendships at work, which is more the focus of the book. People who have a best friend at work enjoy many benefits in terms of their satisfaction with their employer, work, and compensation. Employers benefit from more engaged, safe, and productive employees.

Unfortunately, the traditional culture of many workplaces discourages friendship, both among peers as well as at different levels. Those businesses suffer the results of less engaged employees like lower productivity, quality and customer satisfaction (at the extreme, actively disengaged employees may sabotage their employers).

Part of Rath’s purpose is to help organizations turn this around and create opportunities for their employees to develop friendships with each other. A part of the book is devoted to these ideas.

A larger part of the book is useful to individuals who are looking to indentify vital friends, or friends who might become vital. Through their research, Gallup identified eight roles that friends play in our lives that correlate to our engagement at work and our overall sense of wellbeing. Each is described in some detail. Rath provides pointers on how to find people who may fill these roles for you, strengthen friendships with those who do, and how to be a better friend of this type if it is your inclination. He assumes that no friend can fulfill all these roles, and you and your friends will be more satisfied if you rely on them for their strengths and not try to fit them into another mold.

This aspect of the book is supported by on online tool in which you can answer questions about your friends and the way they relate to you. It’s designed to help you identify which friends play what roles in your life. It is meant to be a launching pad for discussions with your friends, both as a way to express you gratitude for the ways they help you and to help them be even better friends to you (you may find them responding in kind). I didn’t use this tool because the book was loaned to me. Even so, reading the chapters on the roles will give you ideas to make your own determinations of what friend are filling these roles in your life and who might fill the gaps.

The book wraps up with a description of the research that supports the ideas it presents. The research-oriented sections are in appendices; the main text has a much more casual style.

I started this review with a somewhat flippant question about needing science to tell us what we should already know about needing friends. The thing Vital Friends adds is a framework for identifying and discussing important friendships. You probably don’t want to over-intellectualize your friendships, but you may find it helpful to have some specific ideas and terms you can use as a springboard for your own thoughts and discussions with friends.

Tom Rath also co-wrote How Full Is Your Bucket?

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

The Last Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need by Paul Pearsall

Self-help books are baloney. Psychologist Paul Pearsall didn’t go that far, but he encouraged readers of his book The Last Self-Help Book You’ll Ever Need to have a healthy skepticism about the advice and claims of self-help books. Much of the standard advice in the genre is unsupported by research and sometimes just wrong.

Pearsall’s chief criticism of self-help is its focus on the personal and individual. He argued that there is more joy and fulfillment, along with better solutions to our problems, to be found in the interpersonal and relational aspects of life.

Good relationships are largely a matter of the value you place in them. If you want to others to like you, find ways to like them first. To get love, give love. To find a partner, become someone who would be a good partner. Look for the best in others and overlook their faults. Lasting, loving relationships are based on commitment, not passing, emotional passion.

Another important aspect of Pearsall’s perspective is that there is much to be said for accepting life as it is, good and bad, instead of buying into self-help’s striving for the perfect life.

Life is never going to be perfect anyway. There is no reason to make yourself crazy trying. Instead, aim for a good life of deep enjoyment and engagement. Life is chaotic. Remain calm and learn to enjoy the messy reality. Practice mindfulness; accept the facts of life as it is, but do not passively accept the interpretation you may receive from others. You find the great pleasures and great challenges of living in thinking for yourself.

The themes of relationships and mindful acceptance run through all the chapters of the book. In addition to those areas already mentioned, Pearsall address health and work.

If you’ve read a lot of self-help, you may feel burdened by the gap between where you are and where self-help authors say you can be. Pearsall’s book may be an antidote for that. At the very least, reading it may put things in perspective and help you give yourself a break.

Paul Pearsall also wrote

The Beethoven Factor

Toxic Success

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck

Solve for Happy by Mo Gawdat

Pearsall, Paul. The Last Self-Help Book You’ll Ever Need. New York: Basic Books, 2006.

The Beethoven Factor by Paul Pearsall

Sometimes it seems like we’re all sick and crazy. This may stem from a focus on trying to find and fix what is wrong with us. Psychologist Paul Pearsall referred to this as a pathogenic focus. In his book The Beethoven Factor, he discusses the field of positive psychology, which focuses on what is right with people and what we can learn from those who are well adjusted, happy and healthy. In particular, Pearsall focuses on thriving.

Thriving is growth in the aftermath, and even in the midst of, stressful situations. The people he discusses and learns from in his book, some patients of his and many his fellow patients in a cancer ward, often suffered greatly from disease, war, poverty and other hardships. These people had there ups and downs, but they managed an emotional upward trend.

The heart of thriving is a flexible explanatory style. We’re all telling ourselves stories that interpret and evaluate our lives. People who thrive are adaptive and creative in the stories they tell themselves, which allows them to savor and find meaning in their lives even while suffering.

Thriving can be paradoxical, especially from a pathogenic outlook: someone is becoming stronger in a situation that is expected to make them weaker. Those who thrive can defy the expectations the traditional view of healthy thinking. They work on themselves, which can sometimes make them seem aloof or insensitive. They can be in denial, but they use it to give themselves a temporary escape for pain and time to think. They can be hard to like because of their intensity; when someone is getting the most out of life, they may have little patience for interruptions, naysayers and whiners. They are reflective, which can make them seem withdrawn. They can be depressed, down on themselves and loose hope as they make their journey. Thriving is a process of learning, so it can take a long time, though sometimes someone will catch on quickly.

Pearsall offers a lot of advice on how to thrive, especially in the second half of the book (the first half focuses on introducing positive psychology and defining thriving). This section focuses on four aspects of thriving: hardiness, happiness, healing and hope.

Hardiness comes from our beliefs. Hardy people have beliefs that help them commit to engaging in living, finding a sense of control—which includes knowing when to let go of control—and seeing the difficulties they face and challenges they can cope with if not overcome.

Happiness is rooted in flow. It is focus and engagement in life. Happy people push aside distractions, expectations and striving for things that don’t really bring them joy.

Healing is fundamentally learning. We all suffer to some extent in our lives, and these periods of sickness or other hardship are telling us to slow down and pay attention. Healing people learn to make sense of what happens (in their own ways),  cope with it, and find meaning in their experiences.

Hoping is what Pearsall calls “cautious optimism.” People who hope find a way to hold onto their dreams, or come up with new dreams, without expecting on depending on them. They imagine that the world, imperfect as it is, may be the best possible world, so they get on with seeking all they can enjoy in it.

Pearsall offers his readers a big dose of practical grace. If you’re really finding your own way to cope with adversity in a way the truly engages life as fully as you can, you’re on the path to thriving and it is okay that you may not be the upbeat, outgoing, positive, realistic person that your psychologists, physicians, self-help books and friends think you should be. Living is learning, especially in times of sickness and difficulty; learning is challenging, slow work that requires focus and imagination. If you’re learning, you will struggle and be worn out sometimes. You’ll also be engaged in life in a way that puts you in an uneven, but upward trend, instead of spiraling downward in despair.

Paul Pearsall also wrote

The Last Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need

Toxic Success

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson with Miriam Z. Klipper

The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck

Solve for Happy by Mo Gawdat

Pearsall, Paul. The Beethoven Factor: The New Positive Psychology of Hardiness, Happiness, Healing, and Hope.  Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads, 2003.