Hey guys! So for book club, I chose to read The Happiness Advantage by, Shawn Achor. I found this book to be interesting though at times I didn't agree with it because I felt that you can't say to yourself "be happy" and you will. As I continued to read the novel,it made a little more sense and I understood his principles to achieve happiness. This book teaches us that we must first find happiness in our lives in order to achieve success. For many of us it seems strange because it's not what we are taught, we are taught that in order to have happiness we need to achieve our goals, strive for the best, and become successful. Anchor helped me realize that the method we have always used doesn't work because once we have it we will only want more, and I agree with that. Even if we do get the grades you had set your goals to or the job you wanted, one way or another we will find a way to want more and we will never be content, which is why I agree with Anchor's method. I recomend this book to anyone who is not sure how to be happy as they would like to because somehow it can help. Being content with what you have is key to living a positive life. And yes you can decide to be happy by surrounding yourself with positivity! Let me know what you think!
I agree with you. Achor's idea that happiness is brought on by happiness itself seemed really demeaning to the audience, as the book progressed, he began to elaborate on that idea. However, I still think that the method's a little too simplified. Living a positive life isn't as easy to everyone, and sometimes, there aren't just seven steps to change that.
ReplyDeleteI didn't read The Happiness Advantage, but it seems very interesting. It's very true that we believe that we can attain happiness by achieving our goals, but in reality we will just continue to pile up more goals and never be happy. This reminds me of the cartoon picture of the rat race that we looked at in class. The rats attempted to reach happiness by trying to achieve many things, but they were never really happy. They spent the entire time stressing to become happy. This probably happens to a lot of people. They strive for happiness their entire life, but end up living an unhappy life.
ReplyDeleteI myself have Happiness Advantage, it is true that in our society today people often chose success over being happy. I loved how he stated that students who attend Harvard who you believe are happy for getting into the best college ever, are actually more depressed due to stress. If we just let go of the stress of trying to be successful just a little we can all chose to be happy.
ReplyDeleteI also thought that "telling and making yourself be happy" was too hard and wouldn't really work. But as I read on, Achor provided little tips and ideas that could change your mindset to a more positive mindset and cause you to be more happy. The more we try to be positive and not negative by doing to the little things, the easier it will be to stay happy.
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