A brilliant storyteller and communicator, Tal Ben-Shahar turns the dry language of scientific research into accessible and actionable ideas. He is convinced that our happiness depends on what choices we make, what meaning is given to us by what we do, how we see the world and what stories we tell about it.
“Take the story of the author of the book himself. “I have attention deficit disorder. As a child, it was difficult for me to concentrate on any task even for five minutes. And now it sometimes very much prevents me from working or learning something new. From the age of eleven I dreamed of becoming a professional squash player. However, at twenty, I received a serious injury that drove me to despair. I’m such a loser!» Now listen to the same story, but seen by Ben Shahar with different eyes. “I have attention deficit disorder. Actually, this is a useful quality, because it makes me focus on exactly those activities that I really love, and it’s easier for me to pay attention to what I’m doing. From the age of eleven I dreamed of becoming a professional squash player. The injury ruined my plans. As a result, I decided to go to university and discovered psychology, to which I have devoted my life ever since.”
- Why is it difficult for us to make a choice?
We make not only global decisions: whether to link our fate with some person, whether to move to another job, but we also make every minute choices — smile or frown, take a deep breath or not, as well as daily, but also important: how to respond to all sorts of events, failures that life presents us every day. It’s up to us to decide what choice to make. We all have a desire to live, learn, move forward and make the world a better place. We can cultivate it, or we can actively suppress it. In a word, we can influence our lives much more than we dare to believe. “How you assess the situation, and therefore what happens to you, depends largely on you,” says Ben-Shahar. He passionately believes that there is always an alternative way, but this belief is based on experience: after all, he passed all his advice through himself and tested it on his many clients.
In each chapter of his book, he offers in a compact form solutions to a particular life dilemma — avoid problems or overcome obstacles, perceive difficulties as a threat or a challenge, indulge in fear or move forward. The author shares ideas and simple tricks to help put your thoughts in order and start living and thinking flexibly and more efficiently. In fact, the book can be used as a textbook — read, comprehend each proposed choice (and there are only 101 of them!), And then act. But it is worth remembering that true happiness always requires effort. Enjoy your reading and success on the path of self-change and growth.