Wellbeing by Tom Rath and Jim Harter

OVERVIEW

Wellbeing will not be described as ground-breaking by those who have a casual interest in the subject matter.  It is even initially tempting to dismiss it as nothing than more of the same old stuff.  Nevertheless, Wellbeing is a worthwhile read because of the deep statistical basis that drives the reported results and the authors’ strategic and tactical recommendations. 

Gallup has invested in decades of professional and focused surveys conducted, worldwide and in many diverse cultures creating an incredible asset that they believe is a truly accurate global roadmap to building a rewarding and satisfying life.

DEFINITIONS OF WELLBEING

Authors Tom Rath (thank you for the personal email) and Jim Hart, leveraging Gallup’s extensive wealth of research data define the Five Essential Elements of Wellbeing as:

Career – Waking up every day with something to look forward to doing in that day.

Social – Being surrounded by close relationships that foster personal growth.

Financial – Being satisfied with current standard of living.

Physical – Daily execution of a healthy lifestyle built around short-term defaults with long-term benefits for exercise, diet and rest.

Community – Feeling safe and secure in a home and a community to take pride in.

COUNTERPOINT

The book, Wellbeing, provides a wealth of statistical support for its findings and declares its research as multinational and cross-cultural.  Nevertheless it is important to point out in any large statistical exercise, there will specific areas or populations that will display significant divergence from what is the statistical trend.   

KEY POINTS

Once again, Aristotle’s Golden Mean is proven as true today as it was 2300 years ago.   Ultimately, Tom Rath and Jim Hart essentially point out that balance is key.  In the parlance of Stephen Covey, one needs to subordinate short-term gratification for long-term benefit, framing the desired behavior as habit.  In other circles this is called discipline or virtue.

The key recommendation of Wellbeing is to create positive personal defaults by making decisions ahead of time and organizing structure to automate those defaults thereby maximizing the beneficial results. 

The authors also declare, based on wealth of survey data, that what makes life worthwhile is to find something you love to do that benefits society.

SUMMARY

The rest of book is rich with specific strategies and tactics drawn from the wealth of data that Gallup has collected for decades.  It is these specifics that make the book worth any person’s limited reading time.  

I rate Wellbeing at 3.5/5 stars. 

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