Thrive: Finding Happiness The Blue Zones Way by Dan Buettner. 

3/5 rating. 

Book #7 of 2020. Read February 13, 2020.

This book looks into four different hotspots for happy people and looks at what makes those areas different.

This book was okay, the writing was easy and it was a pretty quick read. Probably the most troublesome part about it is that we basically all know the keys to happiness, but continue to strive for completely different things in life.

Dan’s synopsis chapter has some deeper insights, but in general, happy people: – live around other, accepting, tolerant, happy people – are safe in their homes – spend more time outdoors and especially waaay less screen time – enjoy the arts – walk, or bike, or do anything apart from driving everywhere – either have work they enjoy, or at least only work 40 hours/wk and take vacation!!! – are involved socially many hours per day through work, clubs, get-togethers – are happily married – are set financially, or at least don’t have huge debts – garden – know their purpose in life – volunteer

Implement a few of these and hopefully you can improve your life and “Thrive” like Dan is advocating.

Quotes:

“Without dreams, without risks, only a trivial semblance of living can be achieved.”

“One of the reason we think Danes are very happy is because they are very satisfied with their lives. Which means that life is very good here – or that Danes have very low expectations.”

“We believe that a rich person is not necessarily the one with a lot of money. It’s the one who really has a lot to be grateful for: nature, the company of other people, the capacity to enjoy a good book, and an understanding of philosophy. The more things for which you develop a fondness, the richer the life you live.”

“‘We’re not rich because we have a lot of money,’ he said. ‘We’re rich because we have few needs.’”

“‘You make a choice in life,’ he said. ‘You either do what you want to do and go wherever that takes you in the world, or you say, “I want to live here, and I’ll do whatever it takes to live here.”‘”

“Online social networks and the ever-increasing amount of time we spend watching TV have conspired to keep us in front of flickering screens instead of interacting face to face with other people. Elementary schools focus on teaching job skills rather than the arts, civics, and physical education – activities known to produce lifelong satisfaction. Perhaps the most compelling statistic to come out of recent happiness research is the fact that, during the past 35 years, while Americans have worked to increase our income by 20 percent, and the size of our houses has more than doubled since 1950, we’ve become no happier as a nation.”

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