2026 Reading Challenge: July
2026 Reading Challenge: July Recap
We’ve gotten through the first month of the 2026 PGS Reading Challenge. On the surface it didn’t get to a very good start. I dropped The Miracle Hour by Kelly Roach and I had to delay What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo because I have it on hold at the library and it’s delayed. I don’t currently have a plan on that one, but we’ll figure it out. And then there was the fact that The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks was a bit of a disappointment.
So let's get into it.
The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks:
I have to start with this disclaimer; there were some opinions he expressed in this book that were not aligned with my values and I had serious issues with them. The biggest one: He referred to the genocide in Palestine as a “Middle East conflict” when discussing conflict resolution. He reduced the genocide to something that Muslims and Jews needed to “take responsibility” for. Obviously, I had strong feelings about this. I’m not sure why I continued reading the book, but I did. Even the second issue didn’t stop me; He had a take that came across as blaming chronic illness on limiting beliefs. He was attempting to explain how what goes on in our head can manifest in physical conditions. He told a story about a client that was experiencing a migraine and tied this man’s migraines to the fact that he was cheating on his wife. As someone that experiences chronic migraines, I found this to be reductive and insulting. And the way that he discussed the infidelity was honestly lacking in any type of accountability.
So why did I keep reading this book?
I don’t fully know. But there were insights that I found to be useful. The overarching premise was that we have a baseline for how much positivity we are accustomed to experiencing. If we exceed that baseline, we try to regulate back to a familiar level. He postulated that we can increase our capacity for abundance by adapting to a baseline of greater positivity. He encouraged readers to identify stories that we've come to believe about ourselves, stories that weren't even ours to take on. And then he encouraged us to rewrite those stories. This exercise was really helpful. I saw things about some of my beliefs that I hadn't realized before. I still have work to do in this area, but this was helpful. Another helpful exercise from the book; he compared engaging with worry to squeezing a tennis ball. Imagine worrying is squeezing a tennis ball. Releasing that squeeze is releasing the worry. I liked this imagery. It helps me interrupt my worry thoughts.
Overall opinion: I don’t recommend this book. There are plenty of other books regarding limiting beliefs. Let me know if you find one that you would recommend.
The Miracle Hour by Kelly Roach:
I think I learned a lesson from the previous book. If it’s not working for me, it’s ok to drop the book. I had this book on my To Read list because one of my good friends recommended it. And it’s a book about Sales. I am working on improving my sales skills, so I thought this book would be helpful. It wasn’t.
Here’s why:
The author is religious. I should have known, given the name of the book, but it didn’t occur to me. I didn’t keep track of what exactly she had written that did it, but reading the book triggered my religious trauma. It was upsetting and was making me anxious. So I dropped it. Again, I didn’t keep track of specific things that were written, but the overall tone was also very pro hustle culture. The author blamed lack of sales on a lack of commitment to selling. I don’t really agree with that.
There were a few things that I was able to take away from what I read of the book.
Her overall premise was that almost any business can be built on an hour a day. She claimed that the average entrepreneur spends less than an hour a day on profit producing activities. Not something that I can find full agreement on, but I understand where the author was coming from.
A few recommendations that I liked: engage on social media with 5 people that you want to collaborate with, and send dms to new followers. She recommended breaking tasks into manageable tasks that take 5, 10 and 30 minutes.
I think I already make efforts to be systematic with who I interact with on social media. I could see implementing this as a greater discipline. I’ve heard more and more recommendations to use dms as a method to engage more leads. I haven’t figured out if or how this would work for me. Cold interactions carried out this way are very uncomfortable to me. And not in the “it’s uncomfortable because you need to grow” kind of way. But the “there is something kinda icky about this” kind of way. So it’s something I’m considering, but haven’t figured out how to make it work in a way that feels authentic to me.
So what’s next for the Reading Challenge?
Next up is Loud by Drew Afualo. I was able to check it out from the library and I’m enjoying it so far. I’ll have my thoughts and reactions in the next Reading Challenge recap. I have the following books loaded and ready to go on my Kindle app. (Yes I still use Kindle. I regret it, but reading brings me joy and getting rid of Kindle Unlimited feels big and scary right now.) Rich Relationships by Selena Soo and Life in Three Dimensions by Shigehiro Oishi are the next books in the queue. I may drop them if they don’t serve me, but the plan is to read these books.
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