Book Review : Necessary Endings

One challenge most of us face is how to deal with endings. Most times, instead of putting an end to a toxic situation in our personal lives and businesses, we put up with it and gradually, it rips us off the peace and joy we so much want leaving us confused beings.

I’d assumed that changes are meant to happen and somehow they’d pop up as we keep being hardworking and hopeful about what we do but Doctor Henry Cloud shows that one can drive changes in his or her personal life and business in his book Necessary Endings; The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships that all of us have to give up in order to move forward. His analysis of why we avoid endings proves that most of us seem to forget that life is full of stages and for us to ever get to the next stage, the first one needs to end. Not only does he show how to realize when to move to the next stage in one’s life or business but he also equips one to diagnose the kinds of people to trust or not as one embarks this journey.

For some of us, red flags have popped up in our relationships with others yet we tend to be hopeful and optimistic about those things we should be hopeless about. Well, change will never happen when we try to fix what we should actually end.

For many others, stuck is their new normal so although they hurt, it’s difficult for them to do away with it. I agree with Dr. Cloud when he says “Pain is a signal that something is wrong and action is required." The essence of pain therefore is for us to take action to bring change but not to put up with it. In this vein, he practically guides us to create a vision and energy for a better future as we become unstuck and helps us refrain from repeating the problem.

What do you need to end today in your relationship and business for growth?

Contemporary CEOs and lovers of change and growth should read Dr. Henry Cloud’s Necessary Endings and embrace their next level.

By Esther Mawufemor Agbai.