Related Post: What It Means to Matter and Why It’s Essential for a Meaningful Life
Book Review: Mattering by Jennifer Wallace
In Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose, Jennifer Wallace delivers a profound and timely wake-up call. She argues that today’s mental health crisis isn’t simply the result of digital burnout or political strife, but a symptom of something deeper: what she calls an “erosion of mattering.”
Drawing on psychology, sociology, and real-world stories, Wallace makes a compelling case that mattering—knowing we are valued and that our contributions have meaning—is not a luxury. It is a basic human need, as essential as food or water. When that need goes unmet, the consequences ripple outward, fueling anxiety, depression, loneliness, and social fragmentation.
What’s Inside the Book
Wallace explores mattering through a series of thoughtful, accessible chapters, including:
- Connect to Your Impact
- The Good Kind of Weight
- Mattering Too Much
- Everyone Needs (to Be) a Cornerman
- Tuning In
- When the Rug Gets Pulled: Coping with Life’s Transitions
- How We Spend Our Days: Mattering at Work
- Be an Architect: Mattering Spaces
Key Highlights
Chapter 2: The Good Kind of Weight
This chapter focuses on using our strengths to meet the needs around us. Wallace emphasizes the importance of asking, rather than assuming, what others need. As she writes, “To add value, find a need in the world and apply your strengths.” Sometimes, mattering starts with the simple but courageous question: “What can I do to help?”
Chapter 3: Mattering Too Much
While feeling needed is essential, Wallace warns against imbalance. When we prioritize others at the expense of ourselves, the weight of responsibility can become crushing. “By treating yourself as a priority,” she notes, “you also create space for the relationships in your life to become more authentic.”
The Mattering Core
The focus is Wallace’s “mattering core,” a framework built on four essential pillars:
- Recognition: Seeing and acknowledging your own impact
- Reliance: Being needed by others—in healthy balance
- Prioritization: Feeling like a priority to those who matter most
- Investment: Being truly known and supported
Through stories of grieving individuals, exhausted caregivers, and everyday people quietly struggling, Wallace shows how the absence of mattering can dismantle one’s sense of self.
Final Thoughts
Warm, humane, and deeply practical, Mattering doesn’t just diagnose a societal ill, it offers a roadmap forward. Wallace shows how small, intentional acts of recognition and care can rebuild connection in families, schools, workplaces, and communities.
Clear-eyed yet hopeful, Mattering challenges readers to rethink success, connection, and what it truly means to live well, together. It’s a must-read for anyone feeling lost in the shuffle of modern life.
“We live in a time marked by division across politics, race, gender, and class. But gaps don’t close through argument. They narrow from feeling heard or being seen.”
*Thank you to Angela Baggetta Communications for the gifted copy for review consideration. I haven’t been compensated for this review and all views and opinions expressed are my own.
SA Examiner 