I’m sceptical, but not as much as I might normally be, because I am only one of more than fifteen thousand people at Get Motivated!, America’s ‘most popular business motivational seminar’, and the enthusiasm of my fellow audience members is starting to become infectious. It is just after eight o’clock on a December morning, in a darkened basketball stadium on the outskirts of San Antonio in Texas, and – according to the orange man – I am about to learn ‘the one thing that will change your life forever’. THE MAN WHO CLAIMS that he is about to tell me the secret of human happiness is eighty-three years old, with an alarming orange tan that does nothing to enhance his credibility. – Fyodor Dostoevsky, Winter Notes on Summer Impressions Try to pose for yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come to mind every minute. A book I am glad I picked up, read, and made me think I may have missed my calling as a stoic. But the central question of how we deal with our inevitable demise was as chilling an central as ever. He lost me a bit on his final topic of death as he wanders around Mexico watching and commenting on the acts of celebrating the dead. Burkeman's approach was much more interesting and to the point.
I generally am disappointed with what I call slice of life books that jump from one topic to another usually geared toward humor or their sense of commercialized whimsy.
And of course never a short supply of those on the other end handing it over to them trying to get someone to help them steer their lives on the right course. Oliver Burkeman is a pleasure to read as he delves into subjects and topics related to the motives and methods related to the positive goal setting agenda folks who seem as much motivated by the prospect of lining their pockets more than anything. I rated it four stars and was considering five but for a lapse on the final topic. Read moreĪ great thought provoking book on a subject written about generally from one perspective. Thought-provoking, counterintuitive, and ultimately uplifting, The Antidote is the intelligent person's guide to understanding the much-misunderstood idea of happiness. And that there is an alternative path to happiness and success that involves embracing failure, pessimism, insecurity, and uncertainty-the very things we spend our lives trying to avoid. Whether experimental psychologists, terrorism experts, Buddhists, hardheaded business consultants, Greek philosophers, or modern-day gurus, they argue that in our personal lives, and in society at large, it's our constant effort to be happy that is making us miserable.
Looking both east and west, in bulletins from the past and from far afield, Oliver Burkeman introduces us to an unusual group of people who share a single, surprising way of thinking about life. So are we engaged in a futile pursuit? Or are we just going about it the wrong way? We can't even agree on what "happiness" means. Romance, family life, and work often bring as much stress as joy. Wealth-even if you can get it-doesn't necessarily lead to happiness. Few of the many advantages of modern life seem capable of lifting our collective mood.
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