I've just finished reading this book The Happiness Equation for Neil Pasricha.
I loved it very much. I also found it easy to read and backed by science in every chapter.
For example, I got one important insight I found from it. This one is about how we need to set goals that have intrinsic rather than goals those have extrinsic sources.
I've read about this thing before. I knew about studies that prove importance of intrinsic over extrinsic motivation.
This can be found in students or athletes who have their own reasons for success or for continuous training.
But the new insight I've got from the book is that when we aim to external source of motivation, we just miss the internal motivation.
For instance, when you do something purely for passion, you do your best in it without waiting to get paid for it.
But if you do this thing only for money, the whole meaning changes.
You must realize this. Even if you do something you already love but you are focusing on the external reward, you are letting this goal affects your true performance.
The author himself has mentioned this. He mentioned that when he started his first book, he didn't care about advertisement or website traffic.
But when he started to get real traffic, he stated to get anxious about more traffic, book deals and website ranking. All those things have represented distractions for him.
It's when you create something you love you do it with passion. But after a while you start looking for income sources, cash flow and invoices.
One good insight I got from this book: we always think that it's easier said than done, the reality is that it's easier done than said.
When you start doing, you get into the doing circle, you feel like you can do it, then you love doing it and then you continue doing it.
Now I started a new book, NLP For Dummies.
I first read some of this book contents and found that they represent the author's internal experience and emotions about happiness.
I thought that every one of us has his own view of the world and so he or she can make his own version of happiness as he decides.
That's all true of course. And that's why I didn't wanted to start reading the book right away. But suddenly I found the preface and thought that it's what makes your brain change.
I believe that all what we do and how we look is the result of our continuous actions.
So if we continuously focus on good things in our lives, we tend to get better.
So I gave it a shot and read the whole book.
And then I noticed a sudden change in my mood. I found that I could focus on some simple things that could make me feel happier.
It's just that feeling of being happier that made me feeling better and more optimistic.
And suddenly I remembered something I need to do. I went to the ATM to find out that I had the money I waited to receive.
My positive thinking didn't cause the money to come to the ATM of course. But it's that kind of thinking that made me able to try to see the card inside the ATM and I found that I received the money.
When I continued reading I realized how writing those words has affected the author's mind.
I remember trying something similar. I've decided from a long time ago to start writing every good thing or idea I find interesting or useful.
That decision has transformed my character and improved my ability to see better opportunities in life.
And after a while I started reading what I wrote and found how lucky I was to do so.
I encourage you to read that book and also try to write your own. It's not just about writing. It's about changing your mind toward a better state of seeing beauty in every moment.
Now that I finished this book, I've decided to take a new book from the author and let it be my next book to read.
Today I've started reading the book: The Happiness Equation
