You know, it’s so gratifying to be getting so many nice reviews (a few more just came in and Shel put those up on Naked Conversations). But it’s even weirder to hear your book discussed on a podcast. Even better. One of the guys is in California, the other in Amsterdam.

Comment spam is a real pain in the behind. I was just comparing how WordPress captures spam and lets me look over messages and delete spam. It really is the best — by far. Just wanted to say that. Maybe I’ll do a video to show you how much better WordPress is.

One thing, though, WordPress is pretty aggressive on its spam filtering. So, it captures quite a few legitimate comment posts. I try to catch all of those and approve them, but that might be why your comments don’t immediately show up on the site. I NEVER delete posts on purpose.

Oh, while we’re talking about WordPress, lots of people are asking how I got my custom design. That’s actually a preview of a new feature that’s coming to WordPress.com soon, says Matt Mullenweg (he did my custom theme). Thanks Matt, keep the good stuff coming!

Being away from the computer for 16 hours means I can do some thinking about my life. At the airport I bought a book just on a whim. I like reading business books, so grabbed Resonant Leadership by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee.

It spoke to me, cause I see myself making many of the same mistakes that the executives are making. Not spending enough energy on relationships. Or on myself (lack of exercise is one of the warning signs they point out).

One thing I picked up on in the book is how many times they used the words relationship and listening. Listening is a hard thing to do. I find that lately I’m having a tougher time listening and just being there for my friends and family. They call this the “sacrifice syndrome” and they say that many leaders fall into this kind of rut.

The book overall won’t appeal to everyone. It’s a bit mushy and gets into the spiritual side of life a bit more than your average business book. But, that’s especially what a lot of managers need in this “all tech, all the time” world.

They have tons of deep work with executives at recognizable companies and detail where they derailed their careers and how they got them back on track.

How do you renew yourself? What business books have you gotten value out of? I’ll republish this over on our book blog too.