Archimedes’ Lever A collection of Ideas that could move the world

Review: The Emotional Calendar: Understanding Seasonal Influences and Milestones to Become Happier, More Fulfilled, and in Control of Your Life

The Emotional Calendar: Understanding Seasonal Influences and Milestones to Become Happier, More Fulfilled, and in Control of Your Life by John R. Sharp

My rating:
Read from March 31 to April 04, 2011

Sharp's thesis is that our mood and behavior are substantially affected by our own personal emotional calendar. Our emotional calendar is culmination of events, biology, nature (sun, season, time), festivals, and other experiences with friends and family. Understanding our own personal patterns will help us better deal with those influences on our emotional health, mood and behavior.

Sharp builds his argument using numerous case studies and examples. While interesting, the content quickly becomes dry and redundant. That said, periodically he introduced a few interesting tidbits and thought provoking implications.

About 2/3rds of the way through he starts to work through the implications and complications of these case studies. This is where he finally catches his stride. Unfortunately, he only quickly addresses the 'so what can I do about it' subject with a few ambiguous responses ('it depends! it's different for each person!) and then ends the book quickly.

Overall: an interesting idea. However, the book reads more like a journal article. There are some good nuggets buried inside, but it can take some slogging to get there.