Meet Steve Golliher
Author of Better or Bitter: A Practical Guide to Finishing Well
Steve Golliher is a husband to Debbie for over three decades, and father of five. A former executive in the consumer products industry, he spent more than forty years leading teams across multiple states, organizations, and global regions, always striving to build the best teams possible and to live out his faith in the workplace.
The seed for Better or Bitter was planted years ago from a simple, sobering observation: most people do not finish life well. Steve is determined to be the exception.
Throughout his career, whenever he took on a new role or joined a new team, he openly shared not only his professional background but also his core priorities—faith, family, friends, and fitness. After one such conversation with his final team, he offhandedly remarked, “If I ever write a book, it will be called Better or Bitter.”
A team member immediately replied, “You better write that book.”
This is that book—a hard-won practical guide from a man still very much in the fight, written first for himself and now for anyone who refuses to coast into resentment.
About the Book
Better or Bitter: A Practical Guide to Finishing Well
Life doesn’t always go according to plan. Disappointments pile up. Relationships strain. Health fades. Dreams quietly expire in the garage. In those moments — and they come for all of us — we face a simple, defining choice:
Will we drift into bitterness, or will we choose better?
This book is for anyone in mid-life or beyond who refuses to coast into resentment. It’s a no-nonsense, grace-filled guide that shows men and women how to renew body, heart, mind, and soul — one small, faithful step at a time — so you can finish life stronger, not bitter.
The path to better isn’t complicated. It’s built on four core areas of renewal:
- Body Renewal — Your body carries every season you’ve lived through. Caring for it isn’t vanity — it’s stewardship of the only vessel you’ve been given.
- Heart Renewal — Wounds left unattended become walls. Healing the heart means choosing vulnerability over self-protection, forgiveness over resentment.
- Mind Renewal — The stories we tell ourselves shape the lives we live. Renewing your mind starts with questioning the narratives bitterness wrote.
- Soul Renewal — Beneath every external struggle is a spiritual one. Deepening your faith isn’t running from difficulty — it’s finding roots that hold.
When we renew these four areas, bitterness doesn’t stand a chance. Not because we fight it head-on, but because we choose better — by grace, one day at a time.
Read the book. Share your story. Encourage someone else on the journey.
About This Community
Better or Bitter isn’t just a book — it’s a gathering place.
The book started as a personal reminder for myself: a way to keep choosing better, one imperfect day at a time, instead of drifting into the bitterness that waits so easily in mid-life and beyond. But I quickly realized the fight isn’t meant to be solo. We’re stronger when we walk together.
This community is for anyone standing at the same fork in the road: drift into resentment, or choose better. Here, readers share real, honest stories of renewal — small steps in body, heart, mind, or soul that turned complaint into gratitude, wounds into healing, isolation into connection, or doubt into deeper faith.
How to use this community:
Read Stories
Browse the gallery for encouragement when you need a reminder that better is possible, even on hard days.
Share Your Own
Submit a short, personal story (300–800 words) of how you’re choosing better right now. Photos are optional but add warmth and relatability.
Encourage Others
Leave kind comments, pray for one another, and let each story become part of the ripple. We review every submission to keep the space positive, respectful, and family-friendly.
No one here has arrived. We’re all still in the fight — failing forward, getting back up, leaning on grace.
But together, we can remind each other: the second half is shorter than we think, grace is bigger than any rut, and there’s still time to finish stronger — side by side.