"Curious people are never cynical, and cynical people are never curious."
Those words hit me like freight train the first time I read it. I had found the antedote to cynicism. You see, I had noticed immediately upon starting my career in the trucking industry that most of the older men in the industry were cynical and jaded. They just seemed to ooze negativity every day. I wondered for years what made them that way. However, as I aged into the industry, I occasionally caught myself slipping into bouts of cynicism. It was alarming. Where was this coming from? I have worked hard throughout my career to avoid being that guy. What is happening to me? Cynicism was something I had been intentional about avoiding and here it was at my doorstep. I didn't see it coming.
Premise
This is exactly the premise of Carey Nieuwhof's book, Didn't See It Coming. It covers seven challenges that all of us face as we age. The challenges are: Cynicism, Compromise, Disconnection, Irrelevance, Pride, Burnout, and Emptiness. Caught unaware by some of these challenges, they can upset everything we have worked to build in years prior.
Key Takeaways
Understanding how to combat cynicism was my most powerful takeaway from this book. Staying curious is the key. Staying humble and being a continual learner as you age keeps you from being the old angry guy that no one wants to be around. It also keeps you from becoming irrelevant which is another challenge Carey deals with in the book. A lack of curiosity keeps us from learning about things like current trends, generational challenges and issues, and cultural changes. When we are ignorant to what is going on in the world, we lose the ability to speak on those subjects and we are seen as irrelevant.
There is also a powerful chapter in the book on compromise. Carey does a fantastic job of breaking down how small compromises can end up destroying your character and reputation. Finally, there is a great chapter on burnout. You will hear very transparently from Carey about his own burnout and he has been an advocate for building margin, sabbath rest, and better priorities into one's life ever since. I believe this topic is even more relevant today as the challenges the world faced during Covid-19 took their greatest toll on leaders. Many were and continue to be exhausted. Some did burnout during that period. This is just a well written book full of sage advice on some of the greatest challenges we face in life and Carey speaks into each of these subjects beautifully.
Author
Carey is a former pastor that started his career as a lawyer before he was called into ministry. He led one of the largest church in Canada for a number of years. He now hosts an extremely successful podcast. I have been listening to the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast for a number of years now. Carey has a great mix of business and church leaders on his podcast. This is one of the reasons I enjoy the podcast so much as I lead in both my local church and the in business world. Not only is Carey a wonderful thought leader, he is a great writer. This fact stood out to me again as I am reading through Didn't See it Coming for a second time this year.
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Didn't See it Coming: Overcoming the 7 Greatest Challenges
That No One Expects and Everyone Experiences |
Rating
★★★★★
I give this book five stars. It is a must read!
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