This Week’s Good Work Insight

Last night–on a flight from St. Louis to Denver–I got happy. I had no drink. And it wasn’t due to my being in a row by myself.

It was what I read.

Though I had heard a great talk by him at Acton University last June, I hadn’t read anything by him before. Here are a few of the chapters that I read and recommend from The Happiness Files by Arthur Brooks:

• “Think Twice Before Taking the Top Job,”
• “How Smart People Can Stop Being Miserable,”
• “10 Practical Ways to Improve Happiness,”
• “The Magic of a Little Danger,”
• “Why Success Can Feel So Bitter,” and
• “If You Want Success, Pursue Happiness.”

As I read, I got happier and happier.

What I read helped me better understand some words by Mother Teresa (Anjezë Bojaxhiu): “God has not called me to be successful; He has called me to be faithful.”

Being faithful is intrinsic.

I can be faithful to spending time in prayer, walking every morning, talking and laughing with my family, reading good books, finding beautiful trails–some of the habits for living.

I think about work a lot. I love work. (I love work a lot.) But sometimes I want more happiness out of my work than it can provide.

We all know Socrates’ famous maxim: “the unexamined life is not worth living.” To say it differently–if we don’t examine, we don’t live.

It seems to me that happy living has an equation: happiness = examining your life to change + being faithful in the good and greatest things + receiving the Summum Bonum.

Cordially,

CEO & Founder

‍