Thrive by Dan Buettner - Book Report #307

Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way

Dan Buettner originally set out on a National Geographic research project to discover the commonalities of pockets of human population that has historically lived longer than the average.

He discovered many things; people generally are physically active, they eat primarily veggies & fruit, they have close personal connections with family and friends.

One of the byproducts of his investigations was general happiness.

It makes sense that if you are healthy, active and are surrounded by people you like, you'd feel pretty happy.

That is what this book explores.

I like the premise.  Sure, we are all looking for a diet to improve our health and to lose weight.  Wouldn't it also be terrific if you would somehow become happier too?

I'd buy that book.

Check out Dan Buettner's TED talk, if you find it interesting you will find all of his book are too. - https://www.ted.com/speakers/dan_buettner

Dan Buettner's Blue Zones website - https://www.bluezones.com/

The Year of Less by Cait Flanders - Book Report #306

How I stopped shopping, gave away

 my belongings, and discovered life is worth more

 than anything you can buy in a store.

It's a common problem in our cozy First World:  we have too much.

Too much stuff, too much clutter, too many calories and, too many demands on our time.

There are loads of self-help books out there help us to simplify our lives.

This one was a little different.  I was expecting the nuts and bolts of simplifying, hoping to find a few tips and inspiration.  What I got was the struggle the author went through to achieve her goals, not how she did them.  It showed the strategies she employed to keep herself on track and it explored how she motivated herself to continue even when events in her personal life could easily have derailed her.

This was very helpful.  To be shown how the conversations you have with others, how challenges in life, be it professional or personal, have the ability to make your well laid out plans more difficult, was refreshing and familiar.  I did like how she tracked her progress on a calendar, it's something I use everyday; seeing the successful days pile up as I cross them off in bold, black Sharpie is satisfying.

I like to think of the book as a personal growth memoir rather than a self-help book.  Cait Flanders offered plenty of inspiration but she also gave lots of room to make her experience something I could modify and make my own.

It was a warm and charming book.  I was rooting for her the whole time.

Cait Flanders' Website - https://caitflanders.com/

Cait Flanders

Peak Everything by Richard Heinberg - Book Review #305

Narrated by Edward Dalmas

To be honest I felt like there was no hope for humanity after hearing this book.

The world is a big giant mess, I already knew this.  It's why I picked it up.

I've said it before, with a lot of these books they are heavy on problems and light on solutions.  Heinberg simply made me feel like everything was hopeless and I just wanted to give up.

But as the eternal optimist, Peter Diamandis, often says - "The world's biggest problems are the world's biggest market opportunities."  Keep that in mind.

A book like Peak Everything will shine the light on the problems.  It will be up to you to decide which ones you'd like to tackle and to go out to find the solutions yourself.

To be fair, Heinberg does have some solutions, but they mostly revolve about returning to an agrarian life.  Who knows, maybe he's right.

Do I recommend it?  Sure.  Why not?  Just be warned that it's a very one-sided read.

Richard Heinberg's website - https://richardheinberg.com/

Richard Heinberg