9.21.2012

Books: The Happiness Advantage, Part IV

Finished! And nothing much to add, either. Achor doesn't have much to offer on ways to expand one's social networks, his book operating on the assumption most people work in offices and have co-workers and families to interact with. Rather short-sighted of him, I feel. No one is an island, sure, but some of us are more peninsular than others.

The last bit of the book is dedicated to reminding readers that all Achor's principles work together to make a happier you, and a happier you makes a happier world. Tra la la. Seriously, it's all about how when you're more positive, studies show that positivity trickles down on average three degrees from you (not as far as Kevin Bacon, but still), and so the ripple effect makes not only you happier, but those closest to you, and then because they're happier . . . You get the idea. IT ALL BEGINS WITH YOU.

Um, okay.

I'm doing the writing-three-good-things-per-day exercise, but I can't really tell if anything is coming of it. I have noticed it makes me look for good things throughout the day, which was kind of the point: to redirect one's focus from the negative to the positive. But I still have and see my share of less-than-great things. So my happy-go-lucky is being tempered a bit. ::shrug::

I'm also wondering if writing a step-by-step plan for achieving some of my goals might help. Although figuring out how to go about achieving each step (like finding a producer) may be more difficult. Sigh.

Achor reflects at one point in his book that a lot of the things he suggests seem like common sense. And yet common sense does not always translate into common action. It's easy to say, "Yes, these are things I should do." It's less easy to actually make a habit of doing them. I will continue to try. If there is a chance of being happier, it's worth some effort.

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