Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
The Happiness Equation summary
Neil Pasricha
Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything
Listen to the first key idea
Key idea 1 of 7
4.4 (159 ratings)
18 mins
7 key ideas
Audio & text
What is The Happiness Equation about?
The Happiness Equation (2016) unlocks nine essential secrets to living a happy life. These are guidelines that can help anyone reap the rewards that come with having a positive outlook on life. Happiness isn’t just about reducing stress and anxiety; it’s about paving the way to great work and success.
About the Author
Neil Pasricha, a New York Times best-selling author, is an entrepreneur, public speaker and advisor. He is also the creator of the popular blog 1,000 Awesome Things and its accompanying publication, The Book of Awesome.
Table of Contents
Key idea 1 of 7
You need to start from a place of happiness and do things because you enjoy doing them.
Early on in life, you may have been taught that happiness comes only after you’ve done a considerable amount of great work and become a huge success. But it’s this exact lesson that’s responsible for many people’s unhappiness, because the equation actually works the other way around.
Which leads us to the first secret of happiness: success and great work come from people who are already happy.
Happiness shouldn’t be something you chase. External circumstances, such as getting a raise at work, account for only 10 percent of personal happiness. The rest comes from within and is based on seeing the world in a positive light.
To help you recognize everyday happiness, use the 20 minute replay before going to bed. This simple practice involves keeping a daily journal to write down at least one thing that made you happy during the day. Not only will this help you recognize future moments of happiness; it will allow you to relive that happiness at the end of the day.
Another important contributor to happiness is motivation, which brings us to the second secret of happiness: do things because you love doing them, not because of external goals and rewards, or what other people think.
When your motivation is money or admiration, you’re entering a never-ending cycle of unhappiness. Even if you reach your goal, it will only result in a fleeting moment of happiness before you feel the compulsion to set another goal.
The author started his blog, 1000 Awesome Things, because writing brought him joy and he liked the idea of posting one happy detail for a thousand workdays.
However, when the site became popular, he began setting goals. At first he wanted to reach one million visitors. Once he’d done that, he wanted to reach ten million. Then he set his sights on publishing a book. And then the book had to become a bestseller. There was simply no end.
He was chasing a happiness that didn’t – and couldn’t – last. So he resolved to only do things for the sheer joy of doing them.
Want to see all full key ideas from The Happiness Equation?
Key ideas in The Happiness Equation
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
Who should read The Happiness Equation
- Unhappy people
- Employees who dread their job
- Readers looking for guidance in life
Categories with The Happiness Equation
Books like The Happiness Equation
What our members say
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
Start growing with Blinkist now
25 Million
Downloads on all platforms
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
91%
Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
*Based on survey data from Blinkist customers