Work+Life and Stumbling On Happiness – 2 Book Reviews

I recently finished reading two highly recommended books and posted my reviews at Amazon.com.  The first is called Work + Life and is subtitled “Finding the Fit That’s Right for You.”  As you can guess it is about work-life balance but in this case the author Cali Williams Yost re-brands it as Work-Life Fit.  I can agree that the term “balance” has been overused and lost much of its meaning over the years.  Today when you say that you have no work-life balance, most people assume that you are working too hard and want to work less.  In very simple terms this implies “good” for employee, “bad” for employer.  Of course the reality is that most overworked Americans clock not just too many hours per week but also fail to use the limited number of vacation days they have earned to take (much deserved) time off from work each year.  Since there is no one-size-fits-all approach to balancing work and life and since the balance one seeks varies at each stage of life and career, the word “fit” captures the reality better.  Your approach to work (how much, where, when) that meets your life goals must be agreeable to your employer and that is where this book comes into play – as you life and career coach.

Read the VacationCounts Review of the book “Work+Life” at Amazon.com

The next book is titled Stumbling on Happiness and I have to admit I found this book by chance while browsing recommended books at Amazon.com based on past purchases and what other people were reading.  A major goal of this book is to teach you how the brain works when it comes to predicting your own happiness based on life choices and events past and present.  All of us want to be happy and make decisions in life that lead to happiness, everything from shopping decisions to major life and family events.  The author Daniel Gilbert is an accomplished Harvard professor who presents this topic by mixing profound insight with quick humor while employing research studies to back up each lesson.  Do humans know how to find, measure, predict, and reflect on happiness with great accuracy in life, or do our brains get in the way by simplifying memories and using imagination so that it becomes tricky to make the smart (right) decision every time?  Read the full review and the reviews of others to decide if this book should make it onto your shopping cart and either bookshelf or Kindle device.

Read the VacationCounts Review of the book “Stumbling On Happiness” at Amazon.com