My first book of the year was Wake Up Happy by Michael Strahan.  I got this for Christmas and I thought it’d be a good book to start the new year off with.

Wake Up Happy is part memoir and part self-help.  As Strahan talks about certain events in his life he mentions what he learned from the experience and how he has applied it to his life later on.  There are 18 Strahan Rules, which are essentially tips for approaching your life in a way where you know you’re giving your best, no matter the outcome.  Some of these rules we already know because we’ve heard them before, but nice to have a picture of how they’re applied to life.

I enjoyed reading this book as it was an easy read and you can hear Strahan’s voice as you read.  I got to learn about his life and time as a football player, since I wasn’t much of a football fan during the 15 years of his NFL career (not to mention I was only 2 years old when he was drafted).  It was interesting to find out that he wasn’t a high school athlete and he only played his senior year to get a football scholarship to college.  There were just a lot of things about his upbringing and childhood that I found interesting and I think others will too – especially fans of Strahan.

One of my favorite Strahan rules was, “Change before you have to change.”  That was the point of the book where he talked about thinking about what he was going to do when he left the NFL, since he was getting close to retirement.  He gives examples of people changing careers even before retirement because they know what they want to do next in their lives.  I appreciate his outlook on life – that each part is like a chapter in a book, so there should be a proper ending to it (as long as you can help it).  It makes you think that if you want to move on to the next thing, you want to take time before you move on to prepare yourself for the possible challenges that might be in the way.

I wouldn’t say that this book is life-changing by any means, but it makes you think about some little things you can do to better your life that will lead to more of those bigger changes.