Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating A Life of Wellbeing, Wisdom, and Wonder by Arianna Huffington is an important book about defining success and how you attain it. I wish it were a better book.

If you are an aggressive, ambitious person who knows you’re working too hard and sacrificing important parts of life to your success, this book is for you. If you’re struggling to make ends meet or in a stage of life where you have both kids and a career, you’ll find a lot of what’s here gratuitous. It’s easy for someone who has attained both prestige and wealth by working hard and putting in long hours to tell you you shouldn’t work so hard and that money is not that important.

The core message is important, though. Decide what you want from your life and career. Measure your sacrifice against potential gain. If you’re in mid-career, aggressive, ambitious mode you should take better care of yourself and your relationships.

Too Much and Too Little

There is a lot of information here about living better. Alas, the author stacks studies one on top of another, mentioning each one, but not doing much to evaluate or connect them. She doesn’t give you much detail, either.

There are lots of good ideas here. That’s a plus. The author buries many of them under deadening prose, though. There’s too much about Arianna and her sister. There are far too many promotional mentions of The Huffington Post. If this is the only book you read, you might think The Huffington Post is the only media outlet in the world.

In A Nutshell

This book is for you if you think you work too hard and make the wrong kinds of sacrifices. There’s good information, and lots of pointers to more information. With all its faults, I think the first third of Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating A Life of Wellbeing, Wisdom, and Wonder is worth the price of the book.

This book is not for you if you don’t have a lot of options. Don’t read this book if you’re working hard and not getting enough sleep or exercise or good nutrition because you don’t have much of a choice. You already know you need to sleep more, eat right, and exercise. You don’t need this book to tell you that.

You can check out some of my highlights and notes from this book on my GoodReads page.

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