Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier

As in previous chapters, Brooks and Winfrey once again utilize specialized definitions that expand or challenge conventional views in order to make new arguments about the true nature of happiness. In the chapter on work, they describe different professional trajectories that individuals can pursue, emphasizing that one method is not necessarily better than another. This discussion serves to debunk the assumption that building a single, linear career is the only way to create a fulfilling professional life. Instead, they validate the underlying yet largely undervalued reality that many different roads can lead to a satisfying work life, and thence to happiness. By discussing how best to choose between different career trajectories, they advise relying upon one’s initial reaction to the different methods they describe, positing that the right personal approach might make someone “feel excited and maybe a little scared” (162), while the wrong approach might create a “deadened” feeling (162). In short, they emphasize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to a fulfilling career, and they validate an intuitive approach to determining what feels right, thereby advising readers to work from a place of authenticity and intuition.

In Chapter 7, Brooks and Winfrey link their arguments about work to their arguments about social media, asserting that both realms can lead to objectification, something they see as detrimental to happiness. As the text states, “Physical objectification is just one type. Objectification at work is another, and an especially dangerous one” (168). They contend that “Just as social media encourages us to self-objectify physically, our work culture pushes us to self-objectify professionally” (168). Objectification, they explain, occurs when people view themselves and others solely as a means to an end rather than as complex individuals who have intrinsic value. Denouncing the common goal of gaining acclaim based upon only one attribute or skill, the authors state that doing so causes people to reduce “[them]selves to a single quality and turning [them]selves into cogs in a machine” (171). In this way, the pursuit of recognition and validation can diminish a personal sense of self and happiness. Although identifying with a job is often societally encouraged, doing so can hinder overall fulfillment.

While discussing this pattern of self-objectification at work, Winfrey and Brooks hint at the theme of The Importance of Interpersonal Connection. They recommend that the best way to avoid self-objectification is to seek friends outside of work in order to transcend the essentially limited perspective that work-based colleagues have of one’s identity. The authors posit that by expanding social connections beyond the fairly single-minded realm of occupation, people can move beyond utilitarian connections and form perfect friendships, or friendships of virtue, which serve no utility but are based upon genuine connection and mutual support. In such friendships, people are valued for qualities other than the ones they bring to the workplace.

As a contrast to this discussion, Chapter 8 evokes the theme of The Inextricable Nature of Happiness and Unhappiness. Throughout the book, Brooks and Winfrey argue that effort, sacrifice, and even pain and discomfort are all part of increasing overall happiness. Similarly, when discussing spirituality, they assert that cultivating a spiritual practice can be uncomfortable “because it shines a bright light on [personal thoughts and habits]. Beginning meditators have often never been alone with their thoughts. Converts to many religions must confront their sins” (180). At the same time, the authors believe that a spiritual practice, while not easy to cultivate and maintain, is crucial to long-term happiness and fulfillment.