Blog Layout
"When to Walk Away" Book Review
Daniel Crosby • October 2, 2024
“When to Walk Away: Finding Freedom from Toxic People” by Gary Thomas is a book for those who subscribe to the Christian faith and want some good pastoral biblical advice about dealing with those nutty people out there who can’t seem to respect boundaries.
Thomas tells story after story that will normalize a lot of the things you feel in some of your relationships. Sometimes toxic people can be so difficult they begin to make us wonder if we’re going crazy. You’ll hear some stories in this book and think, “Whew, I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels this way.”
A big premise of the book is helping us find peace in letting go of toxic people and walking away. This doesn’t make us quitters. This doesn’t mean we hate the person who we walk away from. This means that we begin to see the immense value of our own time, energy and efforts, and we make the decision to pivot and pour ourselves into people who do want to connect, engage, and build us up as we in turn, build them up.
Whether you have a difficult spouse, coworker, sibling, child, or friend, you’re going to get sound biblical and practical advice from Gary Thomas in his book “When to Walk Away: Finding Freedom from Toxic People.”
“My Life and Work” by Henry Ford is the autobiography by the famed automaker. Yes, that Ford, like the one in your driveway. Why read this one? One, I’m obsessed with learning. Two, I read things that are interesting to me. Three, I want to be successful and not waste this life God gave me. One way I can succeed is from learning from interesting people who succeeded in the past. Success is relative, and while I don’t want to start a car company, I do want my life to have an impact in some way. Henry Ford’s life and work were fascinating. Three things I learned: 1. Ford had an attitude of persistence. He kept going until he found what worked. Setbacks are not failures, just opportunities to try again. 2. Ford knew that people mattered. While known for his radical and maybe even perfectionistic efficiency when it came to inventing the assembly line, he never lost sight of the value that individual workers have in making that system work. 3. Ford believed in service above profit. He knew that if he gave the customer a good product at a fair price and treated them well then the profits would take care of themselves. What all could we accomplish if we simply lived and worked by those 3 principles?
Here's the antidote to numbing, self medicating, and distraction. It's simple. Connection If that antidote is to painful for you, you might want to come chat with me. Together we can make sense of what is getting in your way. www.danielcrosbycounseling.com
So if you work in corporate America and have to lead or attend meetings, then this book is a must read for you. Do yourself in those you work with a favor and read it today. If you have ever attended a meeting and thought to yourself, “I am bored out of my mind and this could have easily been done in a short email,” then read this book and you will be entertained. “Death by Meeting” by Patrick Lencioni is a phenomenal read. I love the way he writes because he takes what could’ve been a really boring step-by-step business book and he creates a narrative fable in which he teaches us. As I was reading the book, I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Yep, that’s why those meetings were so terrible for all those years.” And when I say that, I am pointing a finger back at myself because I helped lead some of those meetings. Most people don’t want to change and most people like the status quo in their comfort. Changing the way you do meetings at your organization is going to create some friction and take some work, but the reward for it on the other end might blow your mind. If you don’t know what to do, then start by picking this book up and learning while being entertained by “Death by Meeting” by Patrick Lencioni.
