BOOK REVIEW: THRIVE

Book: Thrive
Author: Arianna Huffington
Reviewed by: Kirsten Lowis

Let me start by saying that I'm a huge fan of the Huffington Post, and for years I've taken great interest in the rise and rise of workaholic and HuffPost founder, Arianna Huffington. She has clearly created a 'good life' by cozying up to the right people on her way up, and whenever her career seemed to hit a dead end, she shape-shifted or reinvented herself.  The downside...she became a workaholicand now here, her 14th book "Thrive" seems to be for the most part, an average read, with a few golden moments. Let's just say it took a lot longer to finish than I'd planned.

Although it proved a mono read for me, I managed to read (re-read) 3 others in 3 days.  I did find that this book was a bit of a personal 'homecoming' - there were a few lessons for me to take away from a woman who worked too much, and realised only too late that things had to change. Time to get back to the basics...

Among the chapters, I found her regular reference to getting good sleep to be quite profound (I'm not a big fan of sleeping - I'd much rather read).  But, after being forced to spend some time recuperating from the effects of "Stress" (which is the ailment of the hour), Arianna began to change her life. She slowed down and learned to say "NO".  Did you know that "Germany lost 59 million workdays to psychological illness in 2011, up over 80% in 15 years". Whoa! that's some big stats there. And she continues by reminding us that being married to the 'job' can lead to mental disharmonies, perpetual dissatisfaction and imbalance. To put it simply, reading Arianna's newfound 'Third Metric' made me realise that our business and money will not be attending our funeral, right? I'm not quite ready to face a few of the realities of living an 'unbalanced' lifestyle, but I think that getting more sleep is the biggest takeaway for me from the book

On Sleep.Arianna writes "We need more time to sleep and recharge our mental and emotional batteries, put away our phones and laptops and tablets regularly, and try to introduce some stress-reduction tools into our lives." This I agree with. Page 74 onwards was about "sleeping your way to the top" (no pun intended) and how "sleep is the most underrated health habit", and no doubt that our mood, creativity, ingenuity, confidence, leadership and decision making can be improved by having a rested cognitive state.

Other great moments of the book was when she talks about social media, saying "Going viral has gone viral, and is taken to be a big sign of success independently of the value of the thing going viral. Indeed, in the media world the fetishization of social media has reached idol-worshipping proportions."

In saying that, this book remind me of some practicalities in her "Third Metric" to success get more sleep (I'm trying), own a dog (he's adorable), meditate (yes) and volunteer where possible (Yes, but trying not to be a charity). This may be a simple message, but it is one that has resonated with me as life unexpectedly turned topsy turvy for me last year.

I hope this helps you save 20-odd hours. 

"We all need to find the leader in the mirror."