The Reckoning: Why Are You Who You Are, and Who Can You Become?

by Tony Schwartz

A deep-dive exploration of why you are the person you are, and who you can become—as a human being and a leader

Who is currently running your life? The answer—mostly unbeknownst to us—is that none of us operates from a single self. Instead, we unconsciously move between different personas or defender selves, formed in childhood to help protect us from perceived threats that tell us we’re not good enough. In many cases, the defender serves a useful purpose, but it can also be defensive and highly reactive to any experience of criticism, unworthiness, or fear.

The Reckoning is a journey of awakening designed to surface the beliefs, habits, biases, fears, and rationalizations of our defenders that prevent us from being our best. The path to liberation begins with reconnecting to the core self and putting it back in charge of our life. Unlike our defenders, the core self never doubts its intrinsic worth. It doesn’t act from a place of defensiveness. It dedicates its energy to adding value to the world. Simply aligning with it has a powerful impact.

Here, you’ll explore how to:

• Understand what motivates you
• Take on resistance to change
• Embrace all of who you are
• Increase your productivity
• Lead others more skillfully and wholeheartedly
• Live a more satisfying and sustainable life

Over the course of seven in-depth audio sessions, Tony Schwartz and Kimberly Manns reckon with themselves, with each other, and with the fierce challenges we all face in becoming more whole human beings. In the process, they offer a series of frameworks, awareness practices, and behavioral experiments designed to challenge your assumptions, deepen and widen your world, and help you to become more transparent to yourself and others.

Audio CD

Published May 30, 2023

About the author

Tony Schwartz is a journalist, business book author, professional speaker,and the ghostwriter and credited co-author of Trump: The Art of the Deal. He is the founder and head of the productivity consulting firm, The Energy Project.

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t realize at first that this is actually not a book as much as it is a recorded self-help lecture series. Certain things about it were good - I thought it was good that the authors had partnered together, as having two very different perspectives lends credence and authenticity to the work. I thought their ideas about letting go of all of our identities and seeing what was left was interesting but could use some more fleshing out. I both liked and didn’t like how self-directed it was. On the other hand, I did feel like they presented some pseudoscience as fact and that a lot of the people who might listen to this might not have the insight to know that these things (like about the sides of the brain, which do have different areas of specialization but do not work in isolation) are not facts. Generally I think I needed more information about all of their theories - the different selves/the defender self, the different centers of intelligence… I just need more information to come from the authors rather than it all coming from my own reflection.

[Cj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks Netgalley & Sounds True Audiobooks for the Arc!
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Great book to get you thinking about different aspects of your beliefs, habits, biases, fears and rationalizations of our inner mind. I enjoyed their explaination of your different parts of yourself.
The defenders, the child, your core-self, and how it can impact how you act towards situations based on which part has been upfront the most. They also have exercises throughout the book that I found were helpful when thinking more about the subject. I also just enjoyed that it sounded like they were talking in a podcast the whole time, explaining their experiences and giving you information.