HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER
Title: Giving Money and/or Time Leads to Happiness
Competencies: self-development, managing self, psychological well-being
Who benefits: all of us
Consultant Usage: personally important, possible use with clients
What’s it about? “They†say money can’t buy happiness. Harvard Business Professor Michael Norton says otherwise. He studies how we spend our money. And how much joy our spending brings us. His conclusions may or may not surprise you. They may or may not motivate you. But if you even remotely want to be happier in your life this is a must read.
I am putting this new book in a category I have only given to 5 or 6 other reviews on this Blog. It gets my ABSOLUTE HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.
The book hasn’t yet been published (May 14, 2013). I haven’t read it. So how dare I urge you to not waste a day in pre-ordering this potential life-changing book?
Easy. I have read this guy. I have watched two short lectures he has given. He is amazing and inspirational without trying. If you can’t buy into and benefit from this person and his message, … well, live miserably ever after you cold-hearted, miserly, pitiful person YOU.!
Positive reviews are pouring in. Academics and book reviewers are raving about the book. It is at the very top of my reading list. Read the reasons below:
To get a small sense of what he (and his co-author) is all about, read Don’t Indulge, Be Happy on the OpEd page of the New York Times. Here is a sampling: “Being generous is nice, sure, but would using the money to benefit someone else actually make you happier than buying (something for yourself)? Yes, and it’s not even close. In countries from Canada to India to South Africa, we find that people are happier when they spend money on others rather than on themselves.†And it is just as true with young children as with adults.
You can also get a sense of his work on a TedTalk Video: How to Buy Happiness. Â He talks about the almost universal unhappiness of lottery winners and the incredible happiness found among the poorest people in the world.
There is another video I have watch called Money, Time and Happiness, Giving and Getting. I watched it in one of my Coursera courses. Unfortunately I cannot link it to you, but what that video adds is that time is similar to money. Give your time to someone else and you will elevate your level of overall happiness.
You can also learn a lot more about Professor Norton on his impressive Harvard Faculty page.
I have become addicted to a Sunday night TV program called Game of Thrones. On this show there is a young king who is a mean, nasty, selfish son-of-a-bitch with no visible redeeming qualities. Reminds me of a young mean, nasty, selfish son-of-a-bitch Leader of the Kingdom of North Korea. What do they have in common? They think only of themselves and the one on TV is clearly miserable 100% of the time. I expect the same is true of the little runt in North Korea.
Alas, if only they had the self-sight that giving leads to happiness.
Catch you later.
Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.
