Book Review: Brendon Burchard’s “The Charge”

I admit, I was a bit skeptical of Brendon Burchard’s new book, The Charge. I thought I would skim it and glean a few nuggets and be done with it.

I was in for a surpise.

This book represents the best of the self-help and human potential fields. Brendon has condensed his many years of study of human psychology and physiology into a guide that will help anyone access the best, most fulfilling life they can have on earth.

The book is rooted in experience.

In it, Brendon relates the story of a fateful night when he was the victim of a violent auto accident in the Caribbean. He came face to face with mortality, discovering that at the end of our lives we will all ask, “Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter?”

Brendon says since that night he has lived what he calls a “fully charged” life, and he’s helped millions of other people all over the world do the same.

What sets this book apart from his previous work, however, is this: he has done the research to back up his claims for how to live a “charged” life. He relies on the fields of psychology and neuroscience, making a strong case for what he calls the “10 human drives” that make us feel alive.

From the book: ” Neuroscience is providing that indeed, when our brains are free from the basic animal needs of safety, what engages the most neural activity are those very things: novelty, challenge, connection, and expression.”

Brendon makes a very strong case that the fastest and best way to improve the quality of your life is to “activate” the 10 drives that make all of us human. He identifies those drives as our desires for control, competence, congruence, caring, connection, change, challenge, creative expression, contribution, and consciousness. According to Brendon’s thinking, these drives shape your destiny. He contends that understanding and mastering their use is the key to your success and fulfillment.

Another distinguishing characteristic of this book is its hands-on approach. Not content to simply teach theory, Brendon offers concrete instructions about how to live out the ideas that he proposes in the book. All-in-all, I found The Charge to be a very worthwhile read, and recommend it to you heartily.