Thrive

January 27, 2014
Media mogul Huffington lays out steps to creating a lifestyle where success is measured not by money and power, but something more meaningful. She criticizes “America’s workplace culture... fueled by stress, sleep-deprivation, and burnout,” and compliments efforts by companies like General Mills for its “mindfulness program” and LinkedIn for “managing compassionately.” Huffington Post, she reports, exemplifies the “third metric” tenets—“well-being, wisdom, wonder and giving”—with nap rooms, meditation classes, and an app called “GPS for the Soul.” Huffington cites studies on the health benefits, both physical and psychological, of meditation, adequate sleep, and exercise. One study finds people who had participated in volunteering reported feeling healthier, happier, and less stressed. Huffington also recalls incidents in her own life that have led to wisdom, including her hospitalization for exhaustion, a stillborn baby, and her daughter’s struggle with addiction. Discussing death, she advises opening up a dialogue with the dying, powerfully evoking the dignified passing of her own mother. Huffington draws from both Eastern and Western philosophy, and though it’s a bit rich when she criticizes the media for chasing viral stories, this is otherwise an excellent guide for individuals aspiring beyond the rat race or businesses seeking to elevate employee morale and well-being.

April 1, 2014

After Huffington, the high-profile creator of the Huffington Post, collapsed from exhaustion and lack of sleep, she realized that she had measured her life in two metrics of success--power and money. In the author's new book, she proposes an alternative yardstick measuring well-being, wisdom, and the willingness to give of ourselves. Huffington details the ways in which readers can achieve these states, such as practicing meditation, getting ample rest, and appreciating the small wonders in life, and stresses the value of "go-givers" over go-getters. VERDICT Despite the title being somewhat of a turn-off, the author's message of slowing down is a good one, and makes a particularly solid read for the harried careerist.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2014
Advised to unplug, a world-famous media omnivore promptly creates a commencement speech, multimedia conference, hundreds of blog posts and a self-help book about being nice to yourself. For someone who has drawn much criticism for refusing to pay creators from which she profits, Huffington (Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream, 2010, etc.) understands how to market her own image for money. Here, she describes the moment she collapsed from exhaustion in 2007 and the subsequent process of writing her 2013 commencement speech at Smith College. Unfortunately, the book that grew out of that speech is hollow, manipulative and overly self-promotional. "Since my own final straw moment, I have become an evangelist for the need to disconnect from our always-connected lives and reconnect with ourselves," Huffington writes in a representative passage. "It has guided the editorial philosophy behind HuffPosts' 26 Lifestyle sections--in which we promote the ways that we can take care of ourselves and lead balanced, centered lives while making a positive difference in the world." The author's concept--that if life is defined by success at work while simultaneously raising a family, then people need a "third metric" to measure happiness--is flawed at best and deeply condescending at worst, especially to women, at whom this self-help manual is clearly aimed. "It seemed to me that the people who were genuinely thriving in their lives were the ones who had made room for well-being, wisdom, wonder and giving," writes the author. "Hence, the Third Metric was born, the third leg of the stool in living a successful life." Less than a month after her Smith College speech, Huffington launched the concept as a touring womens conference. One has to wonder how hardworking mothers and self-reliant professionals will regard these questionable pearls of wisdom. A gimmicky, patronizing book.

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