Nick Hutchison reviews Chris Westfall's Easier, a business fable mixing fiction with practical lessons. The book uses a locked-room metaphor to show how we trap ourselves, teaches staying present by dropping expectations, and explains how each decision creates a new future.
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If you've enjoyed reading books like the Go-Giver series or The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, then you are going to love today's book review. Book Thinkers family, today I'm reviewing my 3 biggest takeaways from a book I just finished reading. It's called Easier, and it was written by Chris Westfall. The subtitle of the book reads, 60 Ways to Make Your Work Life Work for You. This book has the narrative style reminiscent of the books that I just mentioned. I like to call these Business Fables. They combine the best of fiction and nonfiction, so they're an actual fiction story. This one details a series of conversations between a client and a coach, both fictional characters. But while you're reading the book, you're actually learning real nonfiction lessons that can be applied to your business or your personal life. So like I said, it combines the best of both worlds. It's a fun, engaging, sort of like heartwarming story, but you're learning the same information that you do in all the other nonfiction books that I teach. So I really enjoyed it, and the Go-Giver series is one of my most gifted of all time. So I'd highly recommend checking out this book. What I'd like to do in today's review is actually give you a sample of Chris's writing so you can see what the book is like, because this is a little bit outside of the box from what I typically review. And then I'd like to go through a couple of my other biggest takeaways. By the end of today's review, you'll know if this is going to be a good fit for you or not. So The writing style that I'd like to highlight for you comes from page 51. Consider the man trapped inside a locked room no bigger than a closet. He twists the knob and it turns in his hand. He pushes with all his might. He pushes and struggles, shoving his entire body at the door, leaving him a bruised prisoner with no hope of freedom. He begins to panic. He wonders how he will ever escape. How will he ever find the strength or the wherewithal to push the door open? His thoughts begin to race. His palms sweat. He begins to imagine what fate might befall him if he can't push the door open. It never occurs to him that the door might be open to the inside, the coach said. Like he wasn't really trapped in the room at all? the client wondered. The guy in the room, the client realized, was trapped in the feeling of his thinking. If only he could change the way he was thinking, the client said, sharing a realization. So what I really like about this style is it's visual. You can picture the man struggling inside of the closet, only coming to realize that, wait, the door might actually open to the inside. All this might that he has shoving against the door is useless energy. It's wasted. And then the client sort of realizes, like, well, wait a second, maybe I've been doing the same thing with my thoughts and feelings this entire time. I'm struggling, struggling, struggling, where If I sort of just let go, I might realize there's another way to approach the situation. So that begs the question in your life, watching today's review, where might be you applying too much pressure? And in reality, you sort of just need to let go and rethink the situation. So I wanted to share that because, like I said, it gives you a sense of Chris's style and sort of what the book is like and how it actually teaches these nonfiction lessons and asks really good questions of you. The second lesson today comes from page 99, and there's a line that says, try that chicken salad. The idea here is that if you're going and getting the same lunch every day, you sort of already chalk it up as a waste of time. You're like, I've already had this lunch a bunch of times, it's going to be no different, it's not really that good, eh, whatever, that's lunch. Well, the coach here tells the client, try the chicken salad. Don't anticipate how it's going to taste. That you're going to ruin the experience. Sort of sit down at the table, take your first bite. Maybe it's going to be the best chicken salad you've ever had in your entire life. But unless you're in that moment present and you have no prior expectations, you're going to ruin the experience for yourself. And I think the lesson here for me is that oftentimes as humans, we talk ourselves out of situations before we ever give them a chance. We talk ourselves out of potential relationships before we ever give them a chance, whether that's professional or personal. And this, I mean, it has a lot of downsides. You know, a lot of the fear that we have in our heads is not real. A lot of the assumptions that we make in our heads are not real. Live in the present moment. So what situations in your life are you avoiding because you're just chalking them up as a big loss or whatever the case may be? That's another really cool lesson. I really enjoyed that one. And the last one here is pretty cool. It comes from page 110, and the quote says, "What else can you invite from the infinite into your life?" He wondered. And this reminded me of something that I spent a lot of time thinking about a few months ago. As human beings, we have the opportunity to make different decisions at every moment in our lives, and there are almost an infinite number of future realities that exist as a result of our immediate decisions. And so, as an example, if I punched. the phone right now, well, then I have to take another video, right? And it's not going to be the same one that you're watching today. That's a different reality for me. It's also a different reality for you. So there's an infinite number of realities. What can you invite into your life today? What opportunities exist today? What potential relationships exist today? What potential business opportunities exist today that you can invite into your life that give you a better future outcome? Because remember, there are an infinite number of future outcomes that exist today, and your decisions dictate what's going to happen later in life. So the version of me that's sitting on a front porch when I'm 90 years old is going to be very different than a different version of me if I actually punch the phone or if I don't. And that's kind of a confusing thought, but these questions and these thoughts from the book sort of really resonated with me. I did a lot of journaling, and I spent a lot of time thinking about them. This is one of those that I like. You sort of have to sharpen the saw. What 20% of decisions are going to lead to 80% of the success, you know? And, uh, yeah, I really enjoyed today's read. Like I said, it's that parable fable style that combines fiction and nonfiction, so it's really easy to read, but you can learn at the same time. You'll fly through the book, and, uh, it has one of those sort of like heartwarming sort of endings, but then there's like a twist, so you You'll love it. I don't want to spoil anything else. So if you enjoy what you learned today, grab a copy of the book. If not, send me a DM and I'll try to convince you anyway, because I think everybody should read this book. And, uh, that's it for today's book review. Comment down below, let me know if you have any questions, and other than that, go read something. Bye! Bye!
