One of the nice books I've read in 2012 is Francois Lelord's Hector and the Search for Happiness. The premise for this book is simple, Hector is a young shrink who's done everything right. Yet, the feeling of listlessness and confusion won't leave Hector as he continues to see that his patients are persistently unhappy. He realizes that despite his excellent training and sympathetic ear, he doesn't really know how to help them find happiness as he doesn't know what it is himself. Even worse, he finds himself becoming increasingly drained and dissatisfied by his own life--in many ways, he is as lost as his patients. Leaving everything behind, including his uncertain relationship with a pharma exec named Clara, Hector books a vacation with a mission--to travel the world in search for happiness. What makes people happy? What makes people unhappy? He searches the world far and wide (exage, Reisha) to seek the truth and find meaningful answers to his questions.
In his first stop (China), he meets a lonely businessman trapped on the money-making treadmill, a prostitute who teaches him about love, and a monk high up in the mountains who asks him to return once his journey is complete. In Africa, he meets a doctor working with very poor patients, holds a conversation with a drug lord and a bartender and runs into the local mob. On his last stop in the United States, Hector sees a "happiness expert", one that helps him piece through all of the realities he has seen and experienced during his travels. There, Hector manages to draw a few more conclusions about the connection between happiness and relationships.
Here are the lessons that Hector has learned in the course of his travels, how or why did he come to these conclusions, I'll leave for you to find out. Buy the book! The writing is simplistic but the plot is very nicely laid out--expect a hard hit of wanderlust and heaps of existential thinking to kick in afterwards. As always, enjoy!
Lesson 1- Making comparisons can spoil your happiness.
Lesson 2- Happiness often comes when least expected.
Lesson 3- Many people only see happiness in their future.
Lesson 4- Many people think that happiness comes from having more power or more money.
Lesson 5- Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story.
Lesson 6- Happiness is a long walk in beautiful, unfamiliar mountains.
Lesson 7- It’s a mistake to think that happiness is the goal.
Lesson 8A- Happiness is being with the people that you love.
Lesson 8B- Unhappiness is being separated from the people that you love.
Lesson 9- Happiness is knowing that your family lacks for nothing.
Lesson 10- Happiness is doing a job that you love.
Lesson 11- Happiness is having a home and a garden of your own.
Lesson 12- It’s harder to be happy in a country run by bad people.
Lesson 13- Happiness is feeling useful to others.
Lesson 14- Happiness is to be loved for EXACTLY who you are.
Lesson 15- Happiness comes when you feel truly alive.
Lesson 16- Happiness is knowing how to celebrate.
Lesson 17- Happiness is caring about the happiness of those you love.
Lesson 18- The Sun and the Sea make everybody happy.
Lesson 19- Happiness is not attaching too much importance to what other people think.
Lesson 20- Happiness is a certain way of seeing things.
Lesson 21- Rivalry ruins happiness.
How about you? Are you happy with the life you lead? Do you get to reflect on things while you travel? Do you write about them? I hope so. I find that one of the exciting pleasures of leaving is the opportunity of coming back a changed person--a smarter one, at least.
