I have been reading the new book, The Happiness Advantage, by Shawn Achor. I have read a lot of books about personalities and psychology when doing research for my book: It’s Not You . . .It’s Your Personality. I noticed an ad for this book on AOL and thought I’d check it out. I’m glad I did because if I had seen this book, I may not have picked it up.
The cover does not do it any justice. The plain orange cover, containing what I assume is a partial smiley face, doesn’t really portray how interesting and entertaining this book is. I immediately liked the author’s style and content. He comes across as someone who would be very approachable.
The author, who not only went to Harvard, but taught there as well, comes across as much more of a common-man, than I expected. I mean that in the best of ways. He writes in a light, entertaining way and still educates the reader. Sometimes when you hear big name university instructors have written things, you imagine that their writing might be stuffy, and have too strong of a scholarly or dry tone. This is not the case with this author’s work. Achor has a strong idea of how to connect with the reader. He must have been a wonderful instructor. Perhaps that is why his course in happiness was one of the most popular Harvard course offerings at the time.
The book is about using his 7 principles learned from psychology to be happier and more successful. Filled with anecdotes about his travels and speaking experiences, Achor does a nice job of holding your interest. It is a very optimistic book about how we can all be happier if we follow these 7 principles.
What I really enjoyed about the book, other than the lighter tone, was that he explains some very interesting psychological experiments that are the basis of his work.
I highly suggest checking it out.
Related Articles
- Harvard’s Shawn Achor on How to Be Happier (bigthink.com)
- Happiness at Work (aolhealth.com)
- Are You Investing In The Happiness Advantage? (blogs.forbes.com)
- Why You Should Celebrate Bosses Day 2010 (blogs.forbes.com)
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