Top 3 Book Lessons

"I could care less about it's half full or half empty - as long as I can fill it up."

-Shawn Anchor

This is the core message of the book. The book quotes a study done by Martin Seligman , the “father” of positive psychology, where

Which sounds easier?

Making a million bucks, or increasing your serotonin levels a bit by watching a funny video, so you can score better on a math test later today, since serotonin also improves your memory?

Of course this is ov...

The Happiness Advantage turns the tables on happiness, by proving it’s a tool for success, instead of the result of it, and gives you 7 actionable principles you can use to increase both.

After each failure, crisis or catastrophe, 3 possible things can happen:

1. Nothing changes.
2. You’re caught in a downward spiral, and more bad things follow.
3. You come back stronger than ever before.

Similarly, you can train your brain to spot the positive things in your life,  in order to become more optimistic .

For example you can start a gratitude ritual, where you write down 3 things you’re...

The 40 year old parents, who won’t let their 12 year old be consumed by video games or another seemingly unimportant activity, the 64 year old, who’s just about to retire, but still keeps complaining about how terrible politics are, and anyone who goes to bed already worrying about tomorrow’s pro...

Here’s an example:

When Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team , he could have believed that if only he was taller, he’d have been picked.

But he can’t influence his height, so that would not ha...

Obviously, you have to shoot for scenario number 3 as often as possible. Speaking of scenarios: Following a bad event, your brain always makes up alternative scenarios. These are called counterfacts and this is where you get to t...

Since it was the next suggested book after Happiness , and I told you yesterday that after reading that book you can go deeper into specific happiness tools and topics,

The Happiness Advantage was really cool. I didn’t expect the major insight here, which was that happiness must come before success.  The idea is radical and eliminates the common excuses a...

I had no clue about this. Really cool.

The Tetris effect  is what happens when you spend hours on end doing one particular activity. Your brain becomes so engaged, that the environment of the activity spills over to the rest of your...

For example, research has shown that just anticipating something you’re looking forward to (like that funny video),