In his newest book, “Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently,” Marcus Buckingham continues his theme of helping people find their unique strengths. While he does allow for a broad definition of “success” it still comes across clearly that a successful woman will be expected to be a great wife, mom and career climber.
Chapter Nine — Strive for Imbalance — is a great read for men as well as women – as it applies to work. The author says to ignore balance and chose instead to find your “strong-moments” and find ways to spend more time in those. “If you cannot find any strong-moments within a responsibility you’ve taken on, then diminish or relinquish this responsibility as quickly as you can.” I agree with that position in the workplace, but find it difficult to recommend for a wife and mother.
I suspect the subtitle – “What the happiest and most successful women do differently” will be offensive to a large group of women. Buckingham’s research seems to indicate women with children are less happy, and that women become less happy as they become older.
While there are useful exercises here for managing a busy life, this is not an encouraging book for women who have chosen to be homemakers or who are looking for fulfillment through spiritual growth and enrichment rather than in their careers.
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