From Strength to Strength

This essential book by behavioural scientist and journalist Arthur C. Brooks is based on a feature he wrote for The Atlantic, which has been read over one million times and remains one of the magazine’s most popular articles. This is a happiness strategy for what Brooks sees as our inevitable professional decline, and a way to convert that decline from being a source of regret into an opportunity for growth and transcendence.

Early in adulthood, our expectations about the future are two-fold: our happiness will rise, and our professional abilities will increase. Unfortunately, for the majority of us, happiness declines gradually throughout adulthood until its nadir in one’s fifties. The result is an abrupt shock for many people in their fifties: low happiness and professional decline, neither of which is anticipated, and thus for which we have no good strategies.

The typical reaction is to ‘rage against the dying of the light.’ That is, work harder and longer to get your groove back and stay abreast of young people. Unfortunately, that strategy doesn’t work and is really only successful at causing anger and frustration. There must be a better way. There are several, and they promise to make age sixty happier than fifty (and seventy and eighty better still). But to understand these strategies, we need a deep dive into the world of psychology, brain science and economics. We need to visit a few gurus in the mountains of India. We need to understand what J. S. Bach did right and Charles Darwin did wrong. Most importantly, we need to be willing to change our whole approach to life and love. This book shows how, in detail – resulting in four specific commitments – Jump – Serve – Worship and Connect.