I just realised I’d said to leave your comments below the link to the Happiness Report, but there wasn’t a place to leave them. So I’m setting this up for any questions or comments.
In case you haven’t yet read it, here’s the Happiness Report.
While I was doing this, I thought of another idea that I think could help you. Let me put it into context first.
I’ve always read a lot. When I was a kid I used to read a book a night. I started with Bobby Brewster (a kids story), then the Famous Five, then the Secret Seven. When I’d read all the children’s section, I started reading Footballer’s biographies. By the time I was 11 I’d burned through them and I started reading Peter Drucker and other Business books. Up until about 4 or 5 years ago I’d always read a lot.
Now though, I don’t actually read that much. But whenever I do read, I always have a pen and paper by me. Because after a couple of pages, I’ll start getting ideas of new concept and ideas. Just a little stimulation will spark off my own thoughts.
So I thought we could collect the insights you and everyone else got while reading the report. Then if there are enough, I’ll publish the responses. It could be very interesting.
Reading can be a passive activity and bring you little reward. Or it can be active and with a little more effort bring you a much greater return. Reading is just entertainment. But when you get involved, it then has the power to change your life.
You might think the report sucked. You might think I got everything wrong. It doesn’t matter whether you liked it or agreed with it. What matters is what insights it triggered in you. In the right frame of mind anything can trigger insights.
To get in that frame of mind then, write down your biggest insights, realizations and new perspectives you got while reading the report. Here’s a form I made to capture your thoughts;
Do it now while it’s fresh in your mind and it will be like sowing seeds for your future happiness.
Just so we’re clear. Questions or comments go below. Insights go in the form at;
I am quite the opposite rob. I did not read alot while I was a child. I read a few books here and there but nothing like you have explained but now, I read about two books a month. It’s a very passive activity and I enjoy it very much. It helps me to love others and understand others in a loving way. It calms my mind and really helps me feel in love with myself because I have the self control to sit and enjoy a five, six hundred page book all by myself. I have, in the last few weeks, slowed a bit and my mind is racing once again. “Why am I not happy? Why do I struggle to believe in myself and my ways” And then it hit me on the way to work. My actions are offseting what I truelly want in life. If I love my self then my actions need to show that I love myself and that I believe in myself. If the things I am doing through out the day are offsetting my wants then I will find a way to look at the light of the situation and replace it with a more productive and loving action. I am a confident man and I believe that the world is a great place and that I am an extension of its greatness. Thank you for the great postings. Thank you for being there for the world Rob!
Your love for yourself helps many people.
In reading your thoughts on happiness I was reminded of something I was taught in Alanon. Happiness is a choice. Another thing that I was reminded of was self love. Many a time we choose to stay in situations out of fear. Fear being a lack of faith. You can not be happy if you are afraid. I have learned that if I am unable (I only say unable after attempting such a risk)to take a step in the direction of happiness I can turn it over to something much more powerful than myself. Francis de Sales said
“God does not deprive us of His love we deprive Him of our cooperation” so I pray for help. With faith comes the calming of the storm and I can once again be at peace knowing that God will do what I am unable to do for myself.
Rob,
Just read your book. What you had to say resonated with me and provided many “new” prospectives and insights. On page 30 you talk about events and the effect they have on us, which you state are limited only to the thoughts they stimulate and after that “have no influence beyond what we give them”. This is alternately one of the deepest truths I am drawn to and one of the things I struggle to integrate into my daily thinking. In other words I do let things bother me.
So I have a question which is an example of that, which I hope you will shed some light on. On page 58 of your book, Happiness 2.0, you talk about letting go. When I read or hear about the concept of “letting go” I feel a knowing that it is right. My question though is why does “letting go” always feel like “allowing” to me? Allowing in the negative sense, as in being passive or not efforting to right the wrong? I have this disconnect with understanding the principle on one hand and fighting it on the other.
Lastly, you explain in your book (can’t find the page right now) how it’s common to have a cluttered mind that keeps you from a focus on the higher self, that is so necessary to growth. That’s the challege in large part for me and maybe others. To keep integrity of thought in the front of my minds eye, rather than what my ego sees as more important.
Real good stuff Rob. I tend to gravitate towards what resonates most deeply with the direction I want my life to go and I feel very uplifted with the insights you’ve refined in your book. I knew it was going that way when I realized I was about finished, when I had only intended to skim the first few pages and read the rest later.
Thanks in advance for any comments Rob and Thank you again for the effort you made to make your ideas so understandable in a real world kind of way. I’m glad I found your site.
Brian
Hi Rob,
You speak in a way that I relate to instantly. This says to me that you are very well researched on your own experiences and the experiences of others.
Every so often as I read on I can feel my heart bounce as something I assimilate conflicts with an old behaviour pattern. I love how you refer to the ego as the demon that CAN be defeated.
Your philosophy speaks volumes more to me than the meta-positive thinking strategies we hear preached ad nauseum.
One great thing (among many) that I have taken from your emails and the report is what you said about reading. You mentioned that it is better to read one good book rather than twenty bad ones. I have already read two classics this year, that previously I never got around to. That is very unlike me! Yet the concepts of these classic fictional stories have broadened my day to day thoughts on how life may work and where I might fit in. One of the books I read was George Orwells ‘1984′. Between that and your own writing this planet has become rather unreal!
Thanks Rob,
I look forward to reading more of your work and putting it into practise.
[...] to those people who took the time to comment after reading the Happiness 2.0 Report. Brian asked some questions that I think we all struggle with from time to time. I’m going to address the first one here [...]