The Little Things
February 17, 2015

What does it take for a human to really thrive? In Arianna Huffington’s book Thrive:The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well Being, Wisdom, and Wonder, she tackles this very question. In the book, she tackles the idea of redefining what “success” actually means and looks like, using examples not only from her own life, but from many others’ lives as well. The fact is (and she uses plenty of stories and statistics to demonstrate this), we are a people who is suffering greatly from stress related illnesses, job burnout, and relational strain in our pursuit of “success” in our careers. Huffington outlines various areas of life (meditation, burnout, overconnectivity, sleep, walking, silence, etc…) and discusses how to make these things healthier (or even change them), to lead a more successful life in which we can thrive.

Thrive Book Review- Arianna Huffington

I listened to the audiobook, and while I mostly enjoyed it (I gave it a 4 on goodreads but I wish I could’ve given it a 3.5 or 3.75 instead), I think I might have enjoyed reading it more slowly, in a paper copy book that I could mark up. I love her focus on the little things that we do that can either harm or help us. She came out really strong at the beginning of the book, but then it got a little repetitious towards the end.

Here’s one of the many quotes that I enjoyed from the book, by Iain Thomas: “And every day, the world will drag you by the hand, yelling, “This is important! And this is important! And this is important! You need to worry about this! And this! And this!” And each day, it’s up to you to yank your hand back, put it on your heart and say, ‘No. This is what’s important’.” 

What do you need to change in life in order to really thrive?

 

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5 responses to “Thrive”

  1. Jess says:
    February 17, 2015 at 10:09 am

    Love that quote – it’s amazing how “urgent” everything seems at times.

    Do you have any audiobook recommendations?

    • littlethingscaroline@gmail.com says:
      February 17, 2015 at 8:46 pm

      So far this year I’ve listened to the following audiobooks: Outliers, Eat Pray Love, Seal Team Six, The Book Thief, and the Andy Cohen Diaries, as well as Thrive.

      In this post (http://www.thelittlethingsblog.com/recommendedbookstoread2014/ ) I shared all the audiobooks that I listened to in 2014.

      I’m wanting to listen to The Giver at some point soon, as I haven’t read the book since middle school.

  2. Sarah says:
    February 17, 2015 at 7:17 pm

    I’ve seen ads for that book–but I never really paid attention. But, your review makes me want to give it a try. I am having a hard time redefining what a successful life means to me now that I had to quit my career, deal with more health issues, etc. I’m very goal oriented, so it’s stressful. It does seem like a book that I would like to mark up, too!

    • littlethingscaroline@gmail.com says:
      February 17, 2015 at 8:32 pm

      I hadn’t even looked at it through the eyes of chronic health issues, but it certainly would have some implications for that as well. It wasn’t my favorite book, but it had some great nuggets of wisdom. I have another post or two coming with various thoughts I have from the book!

  3. The Little Things says:
    February 23, 2015 at 2:02 am

    […] that title sounds a little depression, right? I promise it gets better from here Recently I talked about the book Thrive by Arianna Huffington. I wanted to share another quote and idea from the book that really stuck out to […]