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dralyrose 's review for:
The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything
by Neil Pasricha
hopeful
informative
inspiring
Pasted from 2018 GoodReads Review:
I'm not typically one for the 'self help' style books, but I will say that reading (well, listening to) this book helped me feel a little happier in those moments just from being surrounded by positive thoughts during a time where so much that I listen to while driving to work, etc. (i.e. news) are much heavier and reminders of so much pain and frustration. Not saying that this book, or that happiness in general should be an escape from the realities, but much of this book gave seemingly simple ways to just detox from that negativity.
My two main critiques throughout reading - first, a lot of this felt like it was coming from a very privileged, and oversimplified perspective - like, yes life should be as simple as just 'following your passion' and 'living your authentic self' but we can't ignore things like class, race, etc. and other social factors that play roles in our ability to 'just do it.' Second, and much more trivial, there were moments that reminded me of Family Guy humor - not the vulgarity, but just those moments where they take something and draw it out just a little TOO far (picture when Peter hurts his knee and spends way too much time going 'tssss... ahhhh'). I think this would have been less of an issue had I read the book rather than listening to it (so I could have skimmed more) but there were a few times where the author would write/say things like "before technology, before watches, before clothing, before chocolate cake, before..." and just keep going to the point that I was like "OK WE GET IT. Move on with the point."
In the end, however, after I finished listening to the book (since I did so 100% of the time while driving), I listened again immediately after at 2x the speed and fast-forwarded to the main points and actually wrote a few pages worth of notes to reflect on. While I don't agree with each point made (as the author says you likely wont), I did learn a lot from having an outside perspective on things to focus on to be more happy and I hope to implement more of these worldviews in the present and future.
I'm not typically one for the 'self help' style books, but I will say that reading (well, listening to) this book helped me feel a little happier in those moments just from being surrounded by positive thoughts during a time where so much that I listen to while driving to work, etc. (i.e. news) are much heavier and reminders of so much pain and frustration. Not saying that this book, or that happiness in general should be an escape from the realities, but much of this book gave seemingly simple ways to just detox from that negativity.
My two main critiques throughout reading - first, a lot of this felt like it was coming from a very privileged, and oversimplified perspective - like, yes life should be as simple as just 'following your passion' and 'living your authentic self' but we can't ignore things like class, race, etc. and other social factors that play roles in our ability to 'just do it.' Second, and much more trivial, there were moments that reminded me of Family Guy humor - not the vulgarity, but just those moments where they take something and draw it out just a little TOO far (picture when Peter hurts his knee and spends way too much time going 'tssss... ahhhh'). I think this would have been less of an issue had I read the book rather than listening to it (so I could have skimmed more) but there were a few times where the author would write/say things like "before technology, before watches, before clothing, before chocolate cake, before..." and just keep going to the point that I was like "OK WE GET IT. Move on with the point."
In the end, however, after I finished listening to the book (since I did so 100% of the time while driving), I listened again immediately after at 2x the speed and fast-forwarded to the main points and actually wrote a few pages worth of notes to reflect on. While I don't agree with each point made (as the author says you likely wont), I did learn a lot from having an outside perspective on things to focus on to be more happy and I hope to implement more of these worldviews in the present and future.