Book Review: The Charge

The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive

Brendon Burchard

Tags: Spring/Creation, Transition, Strengths

Book Cover Summary: Since the fateful night of his car accident, Brendon has lived a fully charged life, and he’s helped millions of people around the globe transform their lives and feel more alive, engaged, and fulfilled.

In The Charge, Brendon argues that the only way to measurably improve the quality of your life is to learn how to activate the very ten drives that make you most human. These drives are your desires for more control, competence, congruence, caring, connection, change, challenge, creative expression, contribution, and consciousness. These drives shape everything you think, feel, and do in life, so understanding and mastering them is critical to your success and happiness. Strategically activating these drives on a consistent basis is the fastest path to living a fully charged life.

Reinventurer's Review

They say there's nothing new under the sun and this is probably true for The Charge's 10 human drives. As an educator, however, I know it takes multiple metaphors and examples to commit learning to memory. And that's the easy part. The hard part is making the commitment to put what you learn into practice. Burchard understands human nature and has included exercises and actions at the end of each chapter to help you keep your commitments to the process.

The Charge provides valuable insights for our journey through the Create/Spring step of the transition process. This third step comes after some kind of loos has been processed and accepted through much introspection, frustration, and possibly depression. Spring is when the Re-invent-urer is ready to say, "Well that sucked! Now what?"

Embed The Charge into your plans for growing up and moving out of the funk you've been in by learning what drives you to not only get out of bed and put on a happy face, but feel motivated, energized, and purposeful on a regular basis.

Questions to Ponder and Discuss

Which of the Five Baseline Drives contributes most to your daily motivation for better or worse?

What role does control play in your life?

In what area of your life, work, relationships, etc. so you want to improve your competence? What will it take to do so?

What strategies have you used to help stay congruent with who you want to be?

When you practice self-care, what effects does it have on your attitude and physiology?

How have your connections with people changed over time?

Which of the Five Forward Drives do you want to work on first and why?

What patterns have you noticed in your life when faced with changes?

When was the last time you challenged yourself? What did you do and how did it make you feel? What gets you in the flow?

What is your definition of creativity and how do you creatively express yourself on a regular basis?

What contributions give you the greatest satisfaction?

In what ways do you practice consciousness?