I will be doing future posts on this book as I go back and review my highlights and notes, because there are a lot of great things to take out of this book. I wrote a few posts in the past about Richard Carlson’s book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff’ and enjoyed reading it for its practicality. I feel like this book is the same way.
Carlson begins with five chapters on five different principles for being happy: thought, mood, separate realities, feelings, and the present moment. He then talks about how to apply these principals to five different aspects of life: relationships, stress, solving problems, happiness, and habits. With this book only being around 140 pages, I find Carlson does very well with keeping the reader engaged while giving points of reflection.
The first major question I had for myself was, “Am I happy in the present moment and how long do I keep this feeling?” I have no doubt that I’m a happier person then I was a year ago or a few years ago, but there is a lot of room for improvement. As someone who is constantly absorbed in his own thoughts and someone who always feels like they should be doing better in life, it’s hard for me to remain happy with what I already have in my life. I must seek new ways of feeling happy and continue to understand when I’m in a high or low mood.
Second, all self help books I’ve read over the last year discuss what it means to be present in life. I really think that this was never a good quality in my life until recently, and I still struggle with being present. I now feel that being present is one of the ways to be happy and content. I find myself reflecting on this the most after a long and stressful day. Usually I will try to unwind somehow, like watching a show or listening to music or reading, but often realize that I can’t even focus on what I’m trying to relax to. Often, this brings on more stress when I begin to think about how busy the next day will be, and will stay up way too late with this discontented feeling.
Last thought for right now. Right from the first chapter of this book, “The Principle of Thought,” Carlson discusses that it is important to not be absorbed in our own thoughts, and that we should feel the satisfaction of being able to let go of bad thoughts. After all, thoughts are the only thing that remains of our perceptive past. I struggle the most with my thoughts in the mornings usually on busy days where I wake up wondering how I will even get my daily tasks completed. Staying away from my thoughts and outside of my own mind will be a struggle, because for years I thought that it was important to think and to “focus.” I also think I am to the point where my knowledge of this won’t do a whole lot for my own progress, and that it will just take practice and daily reinforcement.
I don’t want to do much of a review on this book, because I feel like many self-help books are subjective to what you are looking for and how open you are to the ideas being discussed. I feel like people who read this book should understand that happiness directly relates to a healthy psychological functioning. If you are like me and have read books on thinking positively, this will be a good book to put in context. It doesn’t discuss positive thinking, but simply recognizing low moods and how to return to a healthy psychological functioning.
Overall, I really do recommend this book to most readers and will be sure to do a few updates once I get around to reflecting more over this book.
Harrison Rich Blog 