I read The Flinch by Julien Smith, two days ago and it’s been on my mind since then. I wrote about it and I’ve been talking about. I pulled it up on my tablet and gave it to my sister to read. I told my new client to read it and, I’ll have my nephew read it, and I’m telling you to read it. Why? Because it’s important.

The book helps you realize that everyone has fear, but it doesn’t stop there. It tells you how you can overcome those annoying haunts that keep you from becoming the great business owner, wife, friend or community activist that you really are.

Smith points out that it’s important to deal with fear, to look it straight in the eye and challenge it, tell it to move back, get out of the way, you are coming through!

This is the book that you read before the end of the year, before you write your resolutions for next year, before you sit down with your planner. It will help you in the planning process because you will think about how, when, where and why you flinch.

What trips you up and keeps you from being the shining star? Don’t know? Perhaps you do everything you should do, you work hard, you train, you prepare, you even show up, but at the last minute…you flinch.

From the book:

“Individuals have flinches, but so do organizations and cultures. They can invoke a fear of a certain kind of person, a kind of racism or xenophobia, or a fear of new technology or outside influences. Whatever form it takes, the flinch is there to support the status quo. It whispers in your ear so you’ll dismiss a good idea that requires a lot of change. “

The Flinch will refresh you or challenge you. We need both in order to keep growing and achieving our personal and professional best.

The download is free. It’s a quick and easy read that will give you some good things to chew on for a while. You’ll most likely send it off to someone you know so they can learn how not to flinch, and how to challenge the status quo in their own lives. I’d like to see every young adult take a look at how they flinch and do some of the exercises in the book to build up strong flinch avoiding muscles.

This year is just about over, get ready to go toward the New Year with more courage than you had before, and dealing with the limiting act of flinching.