Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder

“We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” ― Arianna Huffington, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder

Thrive by Arianna Huffington is author’s personal wake-up call came in the form of a broken cheekbone and a nasty gash over her eye… result of collapse by the lack of sleep. Thrive was first published in 2014 and in book the cofounder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post explores why her health was failing and what changes she had to make.

I’ve been ticking off a lot of books this year (going good since we’re only in February, huh?) by female leaders I admire. Lean In and Thrive have both been on my list for the longest time. Unfortunately, while I loved Sandberg’s book, I wasn’t too impressed by Thrive.  Thing is that I heard a lot about her finally collapsing due to lack of sleep and thought that this book would offer some insight and advice. And it’s not that it didn’t, it did and a lot. Your health is important and I think people have started to realize that if you just focus on money and power, you will very quickly burn yourself out. Which is why it is important to sleep, to meditate and to seek that inner truth about life. Problem being that there was really nothing new, at least for me, and the way it had been put was awful. A mix of different studies, insane amount of scientific references, quotes and her personal experiences all coming up with no clear structure.

I don’t like writing so negatively about this work as I do admire Huffington a lot as a person. I think she’s wildly successful and clearly incredibly smart. However, when I was reading this book, it was like okay Huffington collapsed and some brainiac in marketing department was like hey let’s write a book about this, it will sell. And obviously it was done fast and I get a feeling that Huffington herself wasn’t picking the quotes or the scientific research used.I’m also wondering whether this book was just written to help launch Thrive Global platform. Probably so. 2/5 stars, it was okay.

How-To Read Thrive
1. I think this is a great read for people who admire Huffington and who like developing themselves. At the same time, if you read a lot of self-help books then this will be lousy repetition at best.
2. If you’re somehow confused about needing good health to keep achieving this in life, by all means, please read this.
3. I think this site: https://thriveglobal.com/, actually has a lot of good articles if you were excited by the book.

“I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.”
― Arianna Huffington, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder

Picture credit: featured image: 23/5/12. Arianna Huffington @ C2-MTL. CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER / C2-MTL