2018 Book #3 - Way to Be

I thought I'd start off the year with an inspirational book. I read Way to Be by Gordon B. Hinckley, a former president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This book was written for the youth of the church (boys and girls ages 12 - 18), however, I think much of the advice can be applicable to others as well.

Pres. Hinckley gives nine "Be's" for things that people should be to have successful, happy lives. For each "Be" he uses quotes, tells anecdotes from his own life, as well as his opinions and ideas on how being these nine traits can help people in their lives.

There is an Introduction, a chapter for each of the Be's where he goes in depth on each one, and then a conclusion. The copy of the book I had also had a foreword by Steve Young, a former BYU football player.

I had a hard time getting through the Introduction, but once I got to the "Be" chapters, the read went quickly. It's a pretty quick read - just over a hundred pages, but it's a smaller book with lots of margin space.

Although it's written by a leader of a church, it didn't feel preachy to me in any way; it felt more like someone who was older and wiser giving someone younger his advice. The man was around 90 years old when he wrote the book so I would think he'd had plenty of experiences to know a little something about life.

All of his advice does go follow the teachings of the LDS Church, but it wasn't written in a way that was like, "Do these things to get to heaven." It was just more like, "Hey, if you want to have a good, full life, here are some things that I have learned that will probably work for you."

As I mentioned earlier, it was written for teenagers, but I felt like many of the things he wrote about were still applicable to me as an adult. If I was much older, more of the specific things he mentions in some of the sections or some of the examples he uses to expound on some of the "Be's" wouldn't really apply, but each of the "Be's" would still be things that I think would be beneficial for anyone to try to be, no matter their age.

I thought this was a great book to start out the year, seeing as it's the time for people to make resolutions on how they are going to be better people. I, for one, found a couple of things that I could work on.

What inspirational books have you read?