Overall impression of the book
Over time, the concept of success in society has narrowed down to only money and
power. At this point, success, money, and power have really become synonymous in many
people's minds. This idea of success may work in the short term, but in the long run it will
be like being able to balance on a two-legged stool for a while, but still will fall over. And
the phenomenon of very successful people being overthrown is appearing more and more.
The way we used to define success is not enough. It is no longer sustainable for this species
or society. To live the life we really want, we need a Third Measure of Success, going
beyond the two measures of money and power, it will include four main factors: happiness
(well-being), wisdom (wisdom), wonder (wonder) and giving (giving). I was impressed
with her best quote “You are not your bank account, or your ambitiousness. You’re not the
cold clay lump with a big belly you leave behind when you die. You’re not your collection
of walking personality disorders. You are spirit, you are love”. Success is not only money
- power: No money, no power, failure is partly the fault of fate; but have money, power
and still fail, it's entirely your fault! Success is not just money - power includes 4 factors:
Happiness (Well-being), Wisdom (Wisdom), Magic (Wonder) and Giving (Giving). These
4 factors may sound abstract, but Arianna Huffington has analyzed them in a very
understandable way based on the latest groundbreaking research in the fields of psychology,
sports, sleep science and physiology. study, in his book Thrive (Success is not just money
- power: The third measure to redefine future success).
I have been a spiritual seeker for many years and from much reading, I not only
thrive but have met the most wonderful and talented people in the world. Recently I had
the privilege of learning even more from Arianna Huffington's incredible book Thrive,
which touched me as no other book I've read. After reading Thrive, I was elated that one
of the world's most influential woman, Arianna redefines success, money, and power, all
of which she believes are founded on well-being, wisdom, wonder, compassion and giving.
They have truly been the key principles and values credited to how I lived successfully for
the past 25 years and it was thrilling to see these principles spelled out so wonderfully in
Arianna's words. Thrive is without a doubt the richest collection of researched science,
wisdom, and compelling life stories that our world needs to see. There is a message for
every one of us - whether we're down to our last dollar or counting our millions or going
to the next level of greater achievement. As Arianna shows, we will not thrive unless we
use these higher principles and values in our daily lives. Arianna's power of story, and
experience - in her words "And time inherently creates a story. Things begin and they end.
How they end is the story. Or maybe it's what happens between when they begin and end
that's the story." Thrive redefines and teaches us the true meaning of success with another
pillar of Giving. "Use a talent or skill you have - cooking, accounting, decorating - to help
someone who could benefit from it. It'll jumpstart your transition from a go-getter to a gogiver and reconnect you to the natural abundance in your life."
Sincerely, I thought the book was well-written, structured, and useful. As I begin
my corporate career and look for balance in my life, I found a lot of the life advice to be
useful. I liked the genuine descriptions and the analogies from actual life. I read
Huffington's book in under a week during my lunch breaks at work because, for a self-help
book, it was easy to read because Huffington dominates the reader. Anyone who is
exhausted or seeking to achieve balance in their lives should try this, in my opinion. This
book, however, is only relevant to those with a college degree and a comfortable corporate
job. Many of the ideas in this book are unlikely to apply to you if you work in
manufacturing, agriculture, or the construction industry, especially if living paycheck to
paycheck is your greatest source of stress.
Sections that Reflected my Life
This book came recommended by an executive coach that I respect and given that I
do a lot of work with women executives, I was curious to learn more about how Arianna,
a self-confessed workaholic and now self-made billionaire who started the Huffington Post.
As a result of colliding with a desk and losing consciousness, she realized that she was
burnt out. This realization inspired her to launch the Third Metric, which advocates leading
a life of happiness, wisdom, and wonder. While I wanted to like this book and her, I felt
there wasn’t enough vulnerability or humility and too much self-promotion for the
Huffington Post. Yet, despite its shortcomings, it has a valuable message from a very
successful woman entrepreneur – that it is time to reevaluate the value we place as a society
on working 24/7. The book’s two core strengths for me include: her researched-based
practical advice (including an impressive appendix too) and her personal stories and
experience about her upbringing in Greece and inspirational mother who made up for their
meager financial situation and her. The lessons learned from her childhood showed me her
essence and reminded me of the importance of those formative years. In addition, her book
inspired me to get more sleep as she cited a lot of research on how getting more sleep can
immediately improve your health, mind, creativity, productivity, and sense of well-being.
As Bill Clinton who was known to get 5 hours of sleep a night, said: “Every important
mistake I’ve made in my life, I’ve made in my life, I’ve made because I was too tired.” I
am attempting to go to bed 30 minutes earlier and will look into supporting this new
movement away from a workaholic society. So, if you are feeling burned out, tired,
overwhelmed, or need a mental break, this book might inspire you too!
In Wisdom section, other than our family, we should carefully select the people we
bring along on our "train of life"; there should be no room for masks or tricks. These
individuals ought to encourage us when we are weak and serve as a constant reminder of
the goal of our path when we start to lose focus. When we notice people
(dissemblers/people our gut instinct doesn't like) on the train of our life, we should eject
them. There is nothing more tiring than holding onto resentments, therefore forget about
them and forgive them. Spending time alone and disconnecting enables us to connect
internally and work from the inside out. She talks about a variety of techniques for assisting
us in getting back to a state of calm and balance, including short meditations, breathing
exercises, and simply realizing when we have lost our bearings and using awareness to lead
us there. As you become more accustomed to the path, getting back to our center gets easier
and easier. To transition from difficulty to grace, we need gratitude. Think of three things
you are grateful for from that day when you eat dinner, go to bed with your family, or just
by yourself. Wisdom tells us to listen when our inner voice speaks. Intelligence or inner
understanding is wisdom. Technology can interfere with our intuition because of beeps, a
growing inbox, texts that need to be returned, and running between patients. According to
Francis de Sales, "You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running,
to work by working, and just so you learn to love...by loving." It is possible to experience
"time plenty." Giving ourselves time to deliberate and let choices sour, not constantly
rushing ourselves, and performing modest deeds for others can all help us feel as though
we have more time than we do. Instead of rushing through tasks, we should move through
them at the proper pace. This section demonstrates how Americans experience time famine
in direct proportion to their income. The main cause of ADHD in children is sleep
deprivation. The "slow food" movement served as the catalyst for the current movements
in slow living, slow sex, slow parenting, slow cities, and slow thinking. To simmer on the
back burner, ideas require time. Remove the annoying neighbor from our minds. The
message that so many women receive—"Be sexier, look younger, get smaller, be a better
mother/wife/lover"—often comes packaged in a "You go girl" salutation, but the
underlying message is that we have failed in many areas and must improve. A wonderful
proverb tells the story of an elderly Cherokee and his grandson. According to the Cherokee,
there is a battle going on inside of each of us between two wolves: one is good and
represents joy, peace, hope, serenity, kindness, benevolence, truth, compassion, generosity,
and faith; the other is evil and represents anger, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity,
guilt, resentment, inferiority, and lies. Which wolf triumphs in this conflict, the grandson
wonders? The one you feed; the elderly Cherokee retorted. We must be conscious of the
fact that our emotions frequently operate on autopilot and have the power to rewire our
own autopilot. This part gives us advice on how to develop keystone habits with our
husbands or friends in order to help us stick to them. Sleep is a wonderful keystone habit
to break since it helps us break other keystone habits like exercising by reducing our
reliance on willpower.
The Connection between Huffington Book and Guerrero Text
Notably, many illustrations illustrate the connections between Guerrero's book and
Huffington's book. The first similarity between the two works is the yearning for happiness
and love in everyone's life. Guerrero claims in the first chapter of her book that romantic
relationships are crucial to achieving interpersonal requirements including a sense of
adoration and affection (Laura K. Guerrero et al., 2017, p. 7). Similar to this, Huffington
highlights in his book the importance of finding fulfillment in everyone's life through a
variety of factors, such as developing more love, joy, appreciation, grace, and compassion
(Arianna Huffington, 2014, p. 261). Guerrero's book continues with chapter 12, which
provides a variety of data and terminology indicating the power in a relationship. Guerrero
claims that many relationships, in which one partner tries to modify or influence the other,
are characterized by power problems in this chapter (Laura K. Guerrero et al., 2017, p.
315). This idea is related to Huffington's view that success in life shouldn't be determined
by one's position in the political hierarchy. The Huffington book as a whole should provide
recommendations on how readers might move away from the idea that gaining power is a
prerequisite for success. Instead, Huffington wants to educate the readers about the
importance of wisdom, curiosity, and well-being in order for them to thrive in their daily
lives. The two books on the subject of stress also have a relationship. In her book Thrive,
Arianna Huffington lists a number of techniques for reducing stress, including meditation,
stepping away from the outside world, and altering one's self and wellbeing. Guerrero,
however, makes the case that having poisonous or unhealthy relationships is among the
factors that cause stress in people. Overall, Huffington's book gives readers a wealth of
knowledge about ways to improve their mental health so they can have satisfying
relationships. As a result, there are several ways in which Thrive and Guerrero's text
interact.
The major “take away” on relationships gained from this reading
The first lesson to be learned from this book is to redefine success as knowledge,
wonder, well-being, and giving in order to thrive. The author categorized the main lesson
learned from this reading in four different ways. Wisdom, wonder, well-being, and giving
are the four key components of success that this book identifies. The most crucial takeaway
comes first. I learned from the book's chapter on wisdom that I should never seek wisdom
through connecting with my inner vision; instead, I should seek insight by looking beyond
the obvious. According to Arianna Huffington, if we learn to follow our intuition, we will
always be in harmony (Arianna Huffington, 2014, p. 137).
The second lesson I took away from the wonder portion was that I should constantly
seek out different aspects of life, like nature and art, in order to better understand my
philosophy and succeed in life. I learned from the section on wellbeing that I shouldn't let
stress or distractions from new technology prevent me from moving toward a truly
satisfying and joyful existence. Giving ultimately enables one to lead a long, healthy life.
These essential lessons need to be applied by everyone. People could improve their
interactions with others by effectively implementing these fundamental lessons.
Additionally, they would have the capacity to improve their inner wellbeing, which enables
them to perceive a new definition of success and thrive in their life.
REFERENCE
Arianna Huffington. (2014). Thrive: The third metric to redefining success and creating a
life of well-being, wisdom, and wonder. Harmony.
Laura K. Guerrero, P. A. Andersen, & W. A. Afifi. (2017). Close encounters:
Communication in (5th Ed.). SAGE Publications