The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

3 Ways to Get the Most out of This Book

3. Agree to disagree. You will not agree with all nine secrets the first time you read them. That’s okay. Expect to disagree. But remember you have the power to slowly let new ideas into your brain whenever you like. A hundred years before neuroplasticity became a buzzword, American philosopher William James said, “Plasticity, in the wide sense of the word, means the possession of a structure weak enough to yield to an influence but strong enough not to yield all at once.”

2. Change your scenery. Reading this book cover to cover in one night is fine. But if you change your scenery, you’ll get more out of it. A chapter in the buzzing airport, a chapter at the beach, a chapter in bed before flicking off your lamp. Our brains are stimulated by different air, smells, and sounds. Everywhere you read the book you’ll get something different from it and you’ll more easily recall the lessons. Carry this book as you’re moving.

1. Create a seven-day challenge. Any time you read an idea in this book that you want to try, give yourself a seven-day challenge. Write down every day in your calendar for seven days “Do X” and then try to do it. If you can do it for seven days, you just proved you could do it for seven days. Then you can do it for another seven days. Then it becomes a habit. Aristotle says, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”