1. 1-Sentence-Summary:
1.1. Are You Fully Charged shows you the three keys to arriving at work and life with a battery that’s brimming with happiness and motivation, which are energy, interactions and meaning, and how to implement them in your day.
2. Favorite quote from the author:
2.1. "There is nothing wrong with working on important individual milestones, as long as you understand that they may not be the memories you treasure 25 years from now." - Tom Rath
3. 3 lessons:
3.1. The pursuit of happiness is our biggest roadblock on the way towards it.
3.1.1. There are many books, movies, and entire cultures built around the pursuit of happiness.
3.1.2. It’s what fuels the American Dream (and life in most other Western countries), and while there’s a lot of debate around what it should look like, hardly anyone questions the premise itself:
3.1.2.1. Is happiness even something that must be pursued?
3.1.3. As long as we spend enough time chasing it, we’ll eventually find happiness is one of the biggest misconceptions of the 21st century.
3.1.4. External motivation ruins internal motivation.
3.1.4.1. It actively makes you unhappier, instead of just not increasing your happiness.
3.1.5. Happiness is simply a by-product of a meaningful life, which is centered around internal motivation.
3.1.5.1. Let’s say the waitress can comfortably serve 50 people a day, then she can make all these interactions light and positive and find meaning in those.
3.1.5.2. If her boss told her she’d get twice the money for serving 75 customers, she’d be forced to give less time to each one, and focus on efficiency, rather than politeness.
3.1.5.3. She might get the extra money, but that not only won’t make her happier, she’d also sap the meaning from her interactions and thus end up a lot unhappier than she was before.
3.2. Hide your phone somewhere out of sight when talking to someone.
3.2.1. A 2014 study found that conversations, where no phone is visually present, are significantly superior to those, where a phone is on the table, in someone’s hand, or otherwise in sight.
3.2.1.1. This is called the iPhone effect, and it implies that even if people just see a phone while talking to you, they already feel like you’re not giving them your full attention and can’t be as empathic towards you.
3.3. Make an effort to take 10,000 steps every day, starting today.
3.3.1. You sit more than you sleep. On average, people sit for 9.3 hours a day, while sleeping only for 7.7.
3.3.2. This is what happens when you sit for extended periods of time:
3.3.2.1. The nerves in your legs stop working and shut down.
3.3.2.2. Your calorie burning rate drops to one calorie per minute.
3.3.2.3. The number of enzymes, which break down fat in your body, drops by 90%.
3.3.2.4. Your good cholesterol (HDL, High-Density Lipoprotein) drops by 10% every hour.
3.3.3. To avoid all of this: take 10,000 steps every day.
3.3.4. 10,000 steps equals roughly 5 miles (or 8 km) a day.
3.3.5. Walking increases your energy levels by 150%
3.3.6. Do this to make sure you hit your 10,000 step goal each day:
3.3.6.1. Design your environment to make you move.
3.3.6.1.1. For example, when using your laptop in your office, leave your charger in another room, so you have to go and get it when you run out of power.
3.3.6.2. Take detours.
3.3.6.2.1. Extending walks you’re already taking is a lot easier than making up reasons to take more of them.
3.3.6.3. Track your steps.
3.3.6.3.1. Just seeing the number on a regular basis will make you work harder towards your goal.