The Little Book of Being Brilliant

by Andy Cope

The latest and greatest insights on happiness from around the world

The Little Book of Being Brilliant is a ‘greatest hits’ compilation of the best and the latest information from the science of positive psychology. Top-selling author Andy Cope exercises his PhD in happiness, along with his decades of experience bringing ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ to rapt audiences around the world, to distill the tips, techniques, facts and ideas you need to know to achieve sustainable wellbeing and happiness in your own life. Andy’s keen for you to know that he wants you to enjoy the experience, hence his ‘laugh ‘n’ learn’ approach.

Inside, you’ll find guidance for taking action in the form of activities and challenges that will help you implement the latest empirical evidence on happiness. You’ll learn why most people are miles away from feeling as great as they could, and what to do about it. Whether you’re motivated to improve your daily life or looking for the insights that will super-charge your career, or in search of inspiration for your students or your team, this little book will set you in motion toward living brilliantly.

Develop resilience and embrace positivity by setting goals and taking charge of your life Learn, once and for all, what science says about the connection between money and happiness Overcome road rage and other forms of negativity that are dragging you down in the day-to-day Internalize the latest positivity wisdom for work, sport, parenting, relationships, and more There’s absolutely no filler in The Little Book of Being Brilliant, and no need to sift through half-baked ideas or wisdom that researchers have already overturned. For the latest proven techniques on getting happy and achieving success, along with the motivation required to put those techniques into practice, pick up this energetic and inspiring book today.

249 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 1, 2019

Reviews

[Hawraki · Rating 2 out of 5]

كتاب صغير في علم النفس الإيجابي كتبه د. أندي كوبر كي تفهم بأن وضعك الحالي ليس مزريًا كما تعتقد بل هو ما أنت مُبرمج عليه، ويسرد بذلك الأدلة باسلوب سهل وطريف ومبسط، وكونه أكاديميًا، نشكر له إدراج الهوامش. أحببت هذه الجزئية من الكتاب.

ثم ينتقل الكاتب إلى الجزء الرابع يفجّر المفاجأة التي تردد في إخبار الناس عنها، حيث يتخذ الكتاب منحنى روحانيّ فيبدأ بالتحدث عن إكهارت تول، ومؤلفين آخرين في الوعي والإدراك، وأهميتهما، والتفكير من الداخل والخارج، وأمور أخرى، كما لو إنه يتحدث عن شيء مجنون كليًا أو أن أحدًا لم يفهم هذه الكتب، ثم يضمن بعض العناوين التي تتطرق إلى ذات المواضيع والتي يعتقد بأنه يمكن تلخيصها وتبني أفكارها بشكل أبسط، ويطلب من القارئ أن يركز معه لأن الأمر صعب التصديق.

الكتاب بشكل عام جيّد جدًا كمقدمة لعلم النفس الإيجابي، وأخذ لمحة عن بعض الأفكار التي يمكنها تحسين حياة الفرد.

[Wendy Bamber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable snapshot of ideas about how to become more like the sunshine people that you recognise in your life. The highs and lows of life can mean having a great or a bad day, and to me, this book supports you in recognising that it is what it is, not to sweat the small stuff, be grateful for the good, be optimistic but stop waiting for life to be better and enjoy it in the present. Probably needs a re read every so often. Negativity and bad thoughts all come from within, past mistakes or grudges also come from within and we alone have the power to push them aside and focus on the positive. Job done? One can but try.

[Malik Zak · Rating 4 out of 5]

هذا الكتاب ليس مجرد مجموعة من نصائح التنمية الذاتية، بل هو دعوة قوية ومباشرة لإعادة برمجة العقل، مستخدمًا مبدأ "نصل أوكام" (Occam's Razor) لتقديم الأفكار المعقدة بأبسط الطرق وأكثرها تأثيرًا. إنه يوجه نقدًا حادًا لجنون العصر الحديث، من هوس الاستهلاك إلى إدمان التكنولوجيا، مُذكّرًا إيانا بأننا غالبًا ما نكون "الذئب المخبول الذي يعقّد الأمور دون داع".

ما أحببته في الكتاب (الأفكار الرئيسية):
التحوّل الداخلي أولاً: التركيز على أن 100% من مشاعرنا هي نتاج أفكارنا (التفكير من الداخل إلى الخارج)، وليس نتيجة لما يفعله العالم الخارجي بنا. هذه الفكرة تحررك من الكثير من القلق.
نقد الإلهاء الرقمي: تحليل عبقري لكيفية استنزاف وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي "لصفاء الذهن" وحقيقة أن "المحتوى المجاني يكلفنا سلامة عقولنا".
قوة العلاقات والإيجابية: التأكيد على أن "الحب والحب والمزيد من الحب" هو الوقود الحقيقي، وأن "الطاقة العلائقية" التي نحصل عليها من الأشخاص المزدهرين هي الوسيلة الوحيدة لتجديد طاقتنا النفسية.
الفرق بين التغيير والتحول: الدعوة لترك "تزيين البيضة" (التغيير السطحي) والتحلي بالشجاعة للخروج منها كليًا (التحوّل الجذري).
قيمة اللحظة الحالية: التذكير بأن "المعجزة الحقيقية ليست السير على الماء، بل السير على الأرض"، وأن السعادة تكمن في مصادقة اللحظة الراهنة.

خلاصة:
كتاب ممتاز لكل من يشعر بالإنهاك أو الانفصال عن ذاته بسبب ضغوط الحياة الحديثة. إنه يمنحك البصيرة لترى أنك "لست بحاجة لأن تكون بخير في كل الأوقات"، وأن طريق السعادة يبدأ عندما تتوقف عن مطاردة الأوهام الخارجية وتستثمر في منبع تفكيرك الداخلي.

[Mayas · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب يتحدث عن عالم نفس حاصل على درجة الدكتوراة يتحدث فيه على علم النفس الإيجابي شعرت بأنه لم يقدم شيءٌ جديداً ، يتحدث كأغلب كتب المساعدة الذاتية!

[Nanditha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked the analogies and the simple tactics to be the 2%er

[The 99th Edition · Rating 4 out of 5]

عندما ابتعت هذا الكتاب من رف الكتب المخفضة كنت أظنه واحدا من تلكم الكتب التي تترجمها جرير بالجملة لتبي

[E Aktas · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read self help books, a lot of ideas in this book will be familiar.

[Kate Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly very readable...but how practical? Not sure. Here are the notes I made about the most useful bits (for me.) Perhaps I’ll come back when I’ve tried it out and change the stars?

The choice to be positive is the single biggest thing the 2%ers do, so it's worth digging a little deeper. It falls into the category of common sense but not common practice.

And please note, I am not reporting that happy people choose to be happy. There are a lot of well-meaning syrupy Twittershere memes claiming happiness to be a choice.

It's not. Happiness is an emotion. A feeling. You can open up to happiness and let it into your life a bit more, but that's 'allowing' not 'choosing'. Positivity, however, is not an emotion. It's an attitude. And attitudes are something you can take charge of.

Spookily, the better you get at consciously and deliberately choosing to have an upbeat attitude, the more likely you are to experience happiness. Research also shows that actively choosing to be positive requires effort. Its much easier to coast through life on auto-pilot, putting effort into your emails and social media, but without ever really attending to the attitude you carry around with you."

Steve McDermott's 4 minute rule. It takes about 4 minutes for those around you to truly catch your emotional state. How refreshing is that? You haven't got to be a 2%er all day. Just the first 4 minutes will do. That's the first 4 minutes of coming into the office, going home, meal times, a meeting. Get the first 4 minutes right and everyone will have almost no chance but to catch your enthusiasm. The smallest change that's had the biggest impact on my life. "How was your day? Was it good, fantastic or brilliant?"

Excerpt from Dale Carnegie's classic book 'How to Win Friends and Influence People.' His top tips are
1. Be genuinely interested in people around you. Being genuinely interested in people takes time, effort and a considerable amount of emotional enew paragraph
2. Say nice things about people behind their back. Firstly, if you say nice things about your family, friends or work colleagues is likely that the grapevine will whisper it back to them. [Also] In psychology there is something that boffins call 'spontaneous trait transference' which basically means that if you are saying nice things about someone the person to whom you are saying nice things attributes those qualities to you this is all done at a subconscious level but makes it more powerful rather than less.

[Vlad Bezden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, great philosophy, great language, a lot of humor.
The whole point of the book is chapter #4 "What next for homo sapiens?". If you want to learn something from this book you just need to read this chapter.
In my opinion, this book has a very low signal-to-noise ratio.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great little book that takes some fascinating ideas, and with humour, stories and illustrations, makes them very easy to understand. I've been retelling the stories in this book to my family. Brilliant!