Overextended and Loving Most Of It by Lisa Harper

When I first saw this book, I was intrigued. While I try to go outside my comfort zone, I try my best not to overextend myself, lest I get a nervous breakdown.

What this book is about would be how the author almost adopted one child, failed, then adopted another. She uses this story to talk about how to stretch yourself in order to live a God-filled life. The tone of this book is breathless and you can seriously feel how excited the author is. Personally, the tone tired me after a while, the author sounds like a fun, energetic person and I feel like the old one for not being able to keep up!

As I've said before (probably), I'm not much of an extrovert. I'm not sure if I grew into introvertness, or if I'm some mix of both, but face it, I cannot do the "over-extendedness" that this book describes. To me, it seems like overextending yourself is the same as being an extrovert - an overextended extrovert. While I can function perfectly while with large groups of people, I do tend to get tired, and if you ask me to do the same thing day after day after day, I'm going to end up crying day after day after day.

Even the idea of burning out scares me. The author suggests that to tackle burnout, one bust breathe, listen, ask, smile and take the next step. I'm in agreement with the first four steps, but the last step - really? I believe if you're suffering from burnout, it may be God telling you to take it easy. After, the Bible does say "be still and know that I am God". Sometimes, the answer is not to push through, but to sit down, rest and gather your strength.

All in all, this book is not that bad. It does push you to take steps outside your comfort zone, but I wonder, how far outside your comfort zone do you go before it's too far?

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this galley from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.