By: Chad McSwain on April 16, 2023
What can truly make us happy or what is the connection between personality and happiness? These were some of the thoughts as I read, Personality: What Make You the Way You Are by Daniel Nettle. Interestedly, Nettle had the same idea, as he also wrote a book on happiness[1], concluding that happiness is the evolutionary…
By: Eric Basye on April 14, 2023
William Bridges, author of Managing Transitions, was an expert on change who helped thousands of leaders and organizations understand and thrive in seasons of transition. Susan Bridges co-authored the book, a consultant with the William Bridges Associates, who later became his wife. Managing Transitions provides practical guidance and strategies that benefit organizations and individuals experiencing…
By: Eric Basye on April 14, 2023
Steven Koonin is a theoretical physicist with a PhD from MIT and has served in a range of roles, such as the Director for the Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University, the Chief Scientist for BP oil industry, as well as for the Department of Energy under the Secretary of Science…
By: Troy Rappold on April 13, 2023
William Bridges’ Transitions has continued to be an important and relevant book since its original printing over forty years ago. The book is relatable by every individual because everyone goes through multiple transitions during their lifetime. There is wisdom to be found on every page of Bridges’ bestseller. The book is neatly divided into two…
By: Roy Gruber on April 13, 2023
As we approach the end of our GFU journey, it seemed fitting that our last assigned book related to the topic of transition. Many of the books about change I have read focus on the external aspects, namely, the circumstances of transitioning. William Bridges’ self-management book Transitions, in this second edition, includes his wife, Susan,…
By: Caleb Lu on April 12, 2023
In Daniel Nettle’s Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are, he posits that there are five main measurable factors that determine who we are [1]: extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness. Nettle ensures that personality, as measured by these five factors, are relatively stable through time.[2] In the second chapter, Nettle continues by delving…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on April 11, 2023
Introduction: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma[1] by Bessel van der Kolk is another book full of great insights. My takeaways from the book include the major role of the human brain in the way we function. I somehow used to see the heart as the engine…
By: Greg McMullen on April 10, 2023
A little over a decade ago, I was in a construction accident that changed my life forever. As I fell a total of 60 feet and spent 7 years after recovering from the fall, I still struggle with emotions in intense situations. I am partially disabled and my spine moves in three sections. Even though,…
By: Jana Dluehosh on April 10, 2023
This week is an amazing in having all the most frustrating parts of myself exposed on the page. Except, it wasn’t exposed on a page for me…it was burrowed into my ear. Let me explain. I have been managing the books for this class as I go, and my “procrastination” had always worked out. Either…
By: David Beavis on April 10, 2023
With the help of Dr. Bessel Van Derk Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score,[1] the subject of trauma has gone from a topic mostly around military veterans to the vernacular of everyday life. For that, we are all indebted to Van Der Kolk. We have come to terms with our own trauma and received a…
By: Daron George on April 9, 2023
INTRODUCTION “Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are” by Daniel Nettle is an engaging and informative exploration of the complex field of personality psychology. In this book, Nettle provides a comprehensive overview of the major theories and research findings related to personality, with a particular emphasis on the Big Five personality traits. The Big…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on April 8, 2023
Human Beings. We are complex! I found Daniel Nettle’s book to be a valuable and interesting resource regarding human personality. Beyond this book, however, I was reminded of the amazing Creator who has woven us together in all of our intricacies, known and unknown to us. Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are British…
By: Jenny Dooley on April 7, 2023
This book is genius. Your Brain at Work, by Dr. David Rock helped my brain make many connections. I’m not sure I can adequately explain just how many connections I experienced while completing the reading this week. After all, it is not good for a brain try to focus on too many things at once!…
By: Pam Lau on April 6, 2023
In 2020, researchers at Queen’s University in Canada used brain imaging to detect how many thoughts people have in one day. By comparing study participants’ brain patterns while watching a movie to those at other times of day, they were able to identify what they called “thought worms,” which were trains of thought that transitioned…
By: Russell Chun on April 6, 2023
Bondye se plas dous mwen (Creole) or Dieu est mon “sweet spot”(French), God is my “sweet spot” My thoughts on God as my sweet spot. God in my audience and on stage – my director. My prayer. This week, two Haitian women appeared in both my weekly job training class AND my Intermediate Grammar class. …
By: David Beavis on April 6, 2023
Why I Could Never be Elon Musk For better and for worse, Elon Musk has been in the spotlight for years. People are fascinated by the genius billionaire – a real-life Tony Stark. Ferociously driven with intelligence few can parallel, when one thinks of an individual leaving his or her mark on the world, it…
By: Greg McMullen on April 5, 2023
Daniel Nettle’s research spans across a vast range of fields such as health, psychology, individual differences and personality, and evolutionary sciences as well as in topics such as social inequality, cooperation, deprivation, and biological aging. Having a little more time this week with injuring my hand, I was able to do some deeper research on…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on April 5, 2023
Daniel Nettle in Personality: What makes you the way you are? Reminded me of my interactions and ratings in some of these, like Enneagram, DISC, Myers-Briggs, Maxwell Leadership assessment, and others. I like what he had to say about attachment theory. Attachment theorists argue that the mother-infant bond forms a kind of relationship template which…
By: Eric Basye on April 5, 2023
Dr. David Koyzis received a PhD in Government and International Studies from the University of Notre Dame, where he taught for more than thirty years at Redeemer University College. As stated on Global Scholars Canada, Koyzis’ mission statement is to disseminate to the larger world the riches of a Reformed Christian worldview, especially as it…
By: Andy Hale on April 5, 2023
Where were you on January 6, 2021? Our family was driving back from an incredible National Parks road trip to Utah, where we took in the beauty and serenity of Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion, and the Grand Canyon. Somewhere between East Texas and North Louisiana, I checked my phone at a gas…
