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The Happy Life: 21 Principles for Energy, Excitement, and Wealth in the New Economy
The Happy Life is a roadmap to level up your health, relationships, skills, and entrepreneurial abilities. Each chapter outlines principles to help create a happy life, and is followed by a strategy and action section packed with resources, step-by-step methods, practical exercises, email templates, experiments, virtual mentors, and mental models to increase your income and energy.
208 pages, Paperback
Published November 12, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 10, 2015
You come to the end of The Happy Life feeling as if you’ve just complete a psychological obstacle course. It’s draining but it’s worth it, and you do feel like re-evaluating your life. Almost every aspect of life is dealt with – happiness, ambition, family life, love life, health, education, money, civic duty, stress and depression. All human life is there. You feel as if you’ve been caught up in the author’s whirlwind, and are forced to take part in a gruelling evaluation of yourself.
It’s a rewarding process, nonetheless, and although the pressure never lets up, and sometimes you forget where you are, you are given tips to measure up against as you go along. Sometimes the author even numerates the questions you should be asking yourself and leaves blank spaces for you to fill in.
The exuberance of the author comes through on every page, and his energy carries you through even the most surprisingly radical steps of analysis. For instance, I had never thought of evaluating my friends and dropping them if they weren’t giving me what I needed – or indeed my family members! But he does make a good point and it is something perhaps we should consider. (I think I’d like to ask his wife about how well this works!)
The one criticism I do have is that it is too long. I think restraining hand of a fierce editor would have compressed the book without losing any of its messages.
What helps one’s journey through the pages is the clarity of the writing. Many of these kinds of books are turgidly written, but this zips along in clear, well-constructed prose, and helps to make it well worth the time taken to read.
It’s a rewarding process, nonetheless, and although the pressure never lets up, and sometimes you forget where you are, you are given tips to measure up against as you go along. Sometimes the author even numerates the questions you should be asking yourself and leaves blank spaces for you to fill in.
The exuberance of the author comes through on every page, and his energy carries you through even the most surprisingly radical steps of analysis. For instance, I had never thought of evaluating my friends and dropping them if they weren’t giving me what I needed – or indeed my family members! But he does make a good point and it is something perhaps we should consider. (I think I’d like to ask his wife about how well this works!)
The one criticism I do have is that it is too long. I think restraining hand of a fierce editor would have compressed the book without losing any of its messages.
What helps one’s journey through the pages is the clarity of the writing. Many of these kinds of books are turgidly written, but this zips along in clear, well-constructed prose, and helps to make it well worth the time taken to read.
November 15, 2015
Plan for Happiness
Chad has written a detailed book on the process of making a happy life, chock full of details on everything from nutrition to occupation. He has a different approach to the subject of getting happy than I do, but it will work well for most people. Let me tell you what I liked and did not like.
The Author advocates that the brain is like a computer. If you feed it the right data, and keep its hardware in good repair, it will do an amazing job of creating a happy life for you. There is nothing wrong with this idea, but it feels a little bit too mechanical for my taste. I likes me a little spirit in my happy.
No one can deny that this book is a goldmine of information on nutrition, activity, exercise, goals and needed career positions for the future. In any of these subjects, you could use this book as a reference. With slight tweaks to the wording, this book could just as well be an instruction manual on a diet that works, or on effective goal setting.
One point that I disagree with the Author on is the subject of Will Power. He argues in favor of the Will as a useful tool for making the needed changes, and I see it as a distinct impediment to those changes. I see the Will as being driven by desire, and desire is the cause of being stuck in certain behaviors you want to change, such as addiction. I do not see it as a useful tool.
I found this book to be a stimulating read, and I think that everyone who reads it will find a treasure trove of information in one neat package. Regardless of your stance, you will enjoy reading this book.
Chad has written a detailed book on the process of making a happy life, chock full of details on everything from nutrition to occupation. He has a different approach to the subject of getting happy than I do, but it will work well for most people. Let me tell you what I liked and did not like.
The Author advocates that the brain is like a computer. If you feed it the right data, and keep its hardware in good repair, it will do an amazing job of creating a happy life for you. There is nothing wrong with this idea, but it feels a little bit too mechanical for my taste. I likes me a little spirit in my happy.
No one can deny that this book is a goldmine of information on nutrition, activity, exercise, goals and needed career positions for the future. In any of these subjects, you could use this book as a reference. With slight tweaks to the wording, this book could just as well be an instruction manual on a diet that works, or on effective goal setting.
One point that I disagree with the Author on is the subject of Will Power. He argues in favor of the Will as a useful tool for making the needed changes, and I see it as a distinct impediment to those changes. I see the Will as being driven by desire, and desire is the cause of being stuck in certain behaviors you want to change, such as addiction. I do not see it as a useful tool.
I found this book to be a stimulating read, and I think that everyone who reads it will find a treasure trove of information in one neat package. Regardless of your stance, you will enjoy reading this book.
November 14, 2015
Wow!!! I was all smiles at the end of this book. I expected to be inspired, but I walked away feeling more than that...I felt more prepared and capable of achieving my own goals. It's not about creating happiness...it's about improving the skills and areas of our lives that produce feelings of happiness. It was an interesting and organized approach for improving our daily lives and skills in a new, and always changing, world. I loved the way this book was written and organized. It was well-researched, well written, entertaining, informative, and uplifting. And it's not just a straight forward read; the reader is interacting, self-evaluating, creating your own checklists. I really enjoyed the sections on health, family, and creating opportunities. I found that most of it was applicable in my own life, and I made a few personal discoveries during this read, some areas I wouldn't usually factor into my happiness. This book is fantastic and perfect for pretty much everyone. I highly recommend it and plan to read it again in the future. 5 stars.
November 21, 2015
The work environment is in constant change. Using old paradigms and out-dated skills and attitudes within the new global framework does not lead to happiness. This is a terrific primer on updating your attitudes and approach to finding true and lasting happiness in the workplace and in your life overall. What we once considered were necessary skills and attributes to find the best work for ourselves no longer applies and that includes the education you receive and the advanced higher-level degree you were about to take out a government loan for. Sprinkled with inspirational and informative quotes throughout it is very worth your while to at least consider some of the strategies and game-plans outlined in this book. If you change your mind about even one major concept in this book, it could change your life, your job and overall, your happiness.
January 31, 2016
Excellent and all encompassing food for thought.
The kind of material that concentrates valuable insights into a formative action plan to be quickly digested by the reader.
The kind of material that concentrates valuable insights into a formative action plan to be quickly digested by the reader.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews