If you have a marketing question, call us. If you want to know a good summer read, call us too. We are readers at Ingenuity. We, of course, try to keep up with the latest hot business and marketing books, but reading for pleasure is certainly a worthwhile pursuit. You should always have a fresh answer to the question, “Have you read any good books lately?”

So, in our quest to give you information that we think will help you personally as well as professionally, I offer you my first Ingenuity book review. It is not a new book, but I continually see it, here it referred to and remember how amazed I was at the stories Malcolm relayed while I read it. It also made me trust my first instinct more instead of laboring over every decision. Enjoy!

Blink: The Power of Magical Thinking

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell (author of the bestseller The Tipping Point in 2000) is the book that made me talk to strangers. Everywhere I went, this book went with me and I could not help asking anyone near, “Hey! Have you read this?” Gladwell takes an in-depth look at how we make snap decisions. More information is not necessarily good information, as he shows us throughout the book. He lays out fascinating examples that include everything from speed dating to military strategy. Gladwell examines the psychology of John Gottman, the psychologist who has perfected his rapid cognition abilities to determine whether a marriage will succeed or fail, based on just mere minutes of video taped conversation between couples.

Gladwell also shows us the “darker side of blink” where snap decisions in the emergency room, on a police call or picking a political candidate can have devastating outcomes. As busy people all looking for more minutes in the day, Gladwell can validate for us the gut instinct and intuition that can easily have more substance than all of the other information put together. A must read for anyone who wants an interior view of our mental lives and what we really know – in a blink of an eye.

Question: Have you read any good books lately?

In 1994 I was 34 years old and in terrible shape. I did nothing more aerobic than pushing a cart full of toddlers around Cub Foods. My dad, who has always been an avid adventurer, invited me and my two sisters (who you can think of as Athletic Amazons #1 and #2, at least at the time) on a white water rafting and camping trip down the Grand Canyon. While this sounded like a great idea at Christmas, I was in full out panic by the departure date in June when I ran into the army surplus store looking for camping gear.

The night before we were supposed to get in the boats it was pouring freezing rain. Thinking “Grand Canyon” and “June,” I had brought T-shirts. I asked our guide what happened if you broke a leg or something halfway down. He told me that they would keep radioing up to the airplanes that fly over until one got the message and phoned the expedition headquarters to tell them a guest was injured and that a donkey would be needed on the last day to help them get out. The trip was seven days – what if I broke my leg on the second day? He shrugged.

I cried as I got in the cold, wet boat the next day. Over the next week I had an amazing time. And, while a lot of 50-somethings could out-hike me, I stared up at those stars and realized my only limits are created by myself. I went home. I lost 60+ pounds and started working out. It changed my life. I learned that life pretty much comes down to whether you are stretching out your limits or accepting the natural contraction of them.

Stretching in some way has become part of my life. This year, like nearly every year, I went out to Moab, Utah to be in one of the most inspiring and beautiful parts of the country. Before I went I thought about the hike 8 years ago to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. I got to the last bit – the downhill bowl ending in a steep drop-off and hung back. I admired Delicate from a distance.

This year was the year to get all the way out there, in spite of my fear of heights. I told my friends. I told my husband Scott who would be going with me. We hiked up the hot uphill climb, along the ledge near the end and then there it was: an unlikely arch of stone out on the edge of the bowl of down-slanting rock. I got to the natural stone wall at the edge. Scott looked at me, wondering what kind of encouragement I would need. I kept walking, using momentum to bring me up and over the wall. I stepped down into the bowl and kept walking steadily but slowly around to the far end. The ledge narrows and you have to walk out a bit close to the edge to get under the actual arch. I did this part on my butt, but I got there.

Why am I writing about this on a career blog? Because this is one of the ways I know my life is expanding, that I am building confidence, that I can take on more. It permeates into everything I do and helps whatever I take on at work seem easier.

Question: How do you expand your life and confidence?