The Average

     My choice book for book club was The Happiness Advantage.  Honestly, this book had wanted me to change my life.  After reading it, it started changing my view on the world.  Trust me, if you read this book, you will be pretty happy for a while.  It just teaches you the proper way to live life, and I am so thankful for it.  The first page talks about how everyone thinks that if you work hard, you'll be successful, and if you're successful, then you'll be happy.  Shawn Achor, the author, then bluntly states how that formula is broken.  He states that if your happy, then success will come, and that really changed my perspective on life.  There is a true advantage to happiness.
      One part that really hit me was right at the beginning of the book.  After getting a few pages into it, there comes a part where Achor talks about a time he was invited to speak in Africa.  When he was there, he spoke at a school, and when he asked them how many of them liked to do school-work, about 95% raised their hand.  He was surprised, as was I, to why they enjoyed school-work.  They said that it was because they saw it as a privilege, one that many of their parents did not have.  After reading this, it really affected the way I viewed school.  I mean, yes, I am always going to be stressed and worried about school, but now, I try to never look at it like a burden.  I think we all need to realize just how lucky we are to have all these privileges that so many people don't have.  Achor even did a study that proved those who had a positive mindset to excel were to do just that.  Maybe if I were more positive about school and saw it as a privilege to be learning, I will do better than I am now.  It's an experiment definitely worth trying.
     As the book goes on, it's all just about positive outlooks on life and ways to achieve happiness.  I needed this book so much and I am so thankful to have read it.