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    The Intelligent Optimist's Guide to Life: How to Find Health and Success in a World That's a Better Place Than You Think
    The Intelligent Optimist's Guide to Life: How to Find Health and Success in a World That's a Better Place Than You Think
    The Intelligent Optimist's Guide to Life: How to Find Health and Success in a World That's a Better Place Than You Think
    Ebook119 pages1 hour

    The Intelligent Optimist's Guide to Life: How to Find Health and Success in a World That's a Better Place Than You Think

    By Jurriaan Kamp

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    About this ebook

    The world isn’t coming to an end, contrary to what you may have heard. But the media’s near-exclusive focus on conflict and disaster means that the progress and everyday acts of brilliance taking place across the globe go unnoticed.

    Jurriaan Kamp shows that optimism—intelligent optimism, not a rose-colored-glasses brand of wishful thinking—is good for not only your mind but your body too. He details a whole host of health problems that can actually be linked to pessimism. Moreover, there is good reason for optimism: Kamp proves that on the whole we’re living longer, becoming smarter, working less, and growing richer. Not only that, democracy is on the rise, and violence is declining. This book will help you tune out the media’s focus on sensationalism and negativity and turn on your natural optimism so you’ll drop into a “real world” that’s richer than you ever imagined.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBerrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
    Release dateOct 13, 2014
    ISBN9781626562776
    Author

    Jurriaan Kamp

    Jurriaan Kamp is curator of the ‘solutions news’ platform, KAMP SOLUTIONS. In 1995, Jurriaan Kamp left a successful career as the chief economics editor at the leading Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad, to co-found the “solutions journalism” magazine Ode in the Netherlands. In 2004, he moved to California with his family to launch the international edition of the magazine, renamed The Intelligent Optimist in 2012. Under his guidance, the magazine has won the prestigious Maggie Award for journalism several times. In 2015, Kamp launched a daily online solutions news service, The Optimist Daily. He has since moved on launching KAMP SOLUTIONS. Kamp has regularly come in ahead of the curve on stories that advance new visions of our world, whether he’s advocating a more-is-better approach to sustainability or showcasing thought leaders like alternative health pioneer Deepak Chopra or Muhammad Yunus, founder of microcredit, long before the mainstream media learns of their work. Kamp wrote his own book about microcredit, Small Change: How Fifty Dollars Changes the World (2003). He has also brought people together through conferences like, The Treaty of Noordwijk aan Zee, which laid out the principles of a world economy on a human scale. That theme became the subject of his book Because People Matter: Building an Economy that Works for Everyone, published in 2001. His book The Intelligent Optimist’s Guide to Life: How to find health and success in a world that’s a better place than you think was published by Berrett-Koehler in 2014. Recently he wrote, with Gunter Pauli, The Third Dimension: 3D farming and 11 more unstoppable trends revolutionizing the production of food and fuel regenerating nature and rebuilding communities, and LiFi: Communication at the speed of light and the emergence of the Internet of people. Kamp studied international law at Leyden University in the Netherlands. He lives with his beloved, Nancy McGrath, in Santa Barbara, California.

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    • 5/5
      Awesome, really helped me to change my mind to become an optimist :)

    Book preview

    The Intelligent Optimist's Guide to Life - Jurriaan Kamp

    More Praise for The Intelligent Optimist’s Guide to Life

    Every person in the world wants the same thing—to lead a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life. Yet most of us feel that ultimate goal is determined by external factors. In this fact-based, simple, and pragmatic book, Jurriaan Kamp shifts all the power into our own hands by illustrating that our view of the world around us is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

    —Bert Jacobs, cofounder and Chief Executive Optimist, The Life is good Company

    Optimism is both the precondition and the precursor for individuals and organizations in making meaningful change, and Jurriaan Kamp does a wonderful job of reminding us just how powerful it can be.

    —Walter Robb, Co-CEO, Whole Foods Market

    More and more research confirms that optimism is a critical ingredient of longevity and a healthy lifestyle. Jurriaan Kamp’s book shows how you can improve your health through optimism.

    —Andrew Weil, MD

    This book is like a good companion: it cheers you up.

    —Ben Knapen, former State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands

    An inspired and inspiring guide to living with optimism in a world that is increasingly jaded and pessimistic—uplifting, rousing, and challenging us to dream the world into being in a positive and creative manner.

    —Alberto Villoldo, bestselling author of Shaman, Healer, Sage

    Optimism is a mindset, a lens through which to look at the world around us. It takes this mindset to be able to adapt to the changes that technology and climate change will bring our way. More importantly, this mindset also will give us the resolve to not just let change happen; we are the masters of our destiny and can shape a better world for all.

    —Peter Bakker, President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development

    Thoughtfulness and inspiration are two ingredients that are mixed into a perspective that helps us look at the world as an optimist. There are many ways to journey through life, but the goal surely must be to live well. A good read and one you will want to pass on!

    —Arkadi Kuhlmann, founder and CEO, ZenBanx

    The world is full of opportunities for anyone wishing to see them. Media blur that vision and feed pessimism and depression. Optimism is in short supply. That should change and this book points the way.

    —John Mackey, founder and Co-CEO, Whole Foods Market

    Pessimists, beware! This little book has the power to turn your mind around and, with it, your life! Rarely has the case for optimism been made with such precision and persuasion. The author has a genius for seeing deeply into the nature of our time and gives examples of how the world that seemingly isn’t working actually is—and in a most elegant manner. To read this work is to cease giving credence to the whiny naysayers and instead to join the band of angels who carry a passion for the possible, advance the solutions, and engage in the creation of an emergent positive, practical, and successful world. Above all, it is fair to say that those readers who embrace the optimists’ way will even stop boring God.

    —Jean Houston, PhD, author of The Wizard of Us

    There’s no problem in this world without a potential solution. What’s too often lacking is the strategy to find these new solutions. That strategy is optimism—the desire to find the solution wherever it might be. It’s the vital force for innovation in business and society. This is your handbook to create and contribute your solutions. Read and implement it!

    —Rinaldo Brutoco, entrepreneur and Founding President, World Business Academy

    "This is a thought-provoking, challenging, and inspirational book. Jurriaan Kamp’s unique way of looking at how we filter, use, and approach news and information is well worth considering. He is on a mission to help us all realign our thinking. Do yourself a favor and take the time to read and absorb The Intelligent Optimist’s Guide to Life."

    —Robert J. Rosenthal, Executive Director, The Center for Investigative Reporting

    Jurriaan is just the kind of visionary we need today: well-informed, pragmatic, and indefatigably optimistic. His lively book should wake up readers who are using their pessimism as an excuse for inactivity.

    —Bryan Welch, Publisher and Editorial Director, Ogden Publications, and General Manager, Capper’s Insurance Service, Inc.

    THE INTELLIGENT OPTIMIST’S GUIDE TO LIFE

    THE INTELLIGENT OPTIMIST’S GUIDE TO LIFE

    How to Find Health and Success in a World That’s a Better Place Than You Think

    Jurriaan Kamp

    The Intelligent Optimist’s Guide to Life

    Copyright © 2014 by Jurriaan Kamp

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

    Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

    1333 Broadway, Suite 1000

    Oakland, CA 94612-1921

    Tel: (510) 817-2277, Fax: (510) 817-2278

    www.bkconnection.com

    Ordering information for print editions

    Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the Special Sales Department at the Berrett-Koehler address above.

    Individual sales. Berrett-Koehler publications are available through most bookstores. They can also be ordered directly from Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626; www.bkconnection.com

    Orders for college textbook/course adoption use. Please contact Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626.

    Orders by U.S. trade bookstores and wholesalers. Please contact Ingram Publisher Services, Tel: (800) 509-4887; Fax: (800) 838-1149; E-mail: customer.service@ingrampublisherservices.com; or visit www.ingrampublisherservices.com/Ordering for details about electronic ordering.

    Berrett-Koehler and the BK logo are registered trademarks of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

    First Edition

    Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-62656-275-2

    PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-276-9

    IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-277-6

    2014-1

    Interior design: Laura Lind Design. Editor: Pam Suwinsky. Cover design: Carl de Vaal. Proofreader: Henri Bensussen. Horseman image: Ruediger Dahlke. Indexer: Do Mi Stauber. Production service: Linda Jupiter Productions.

    To Hélène, the love of my life and the better optimist

    No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed an uncharted land or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.

    —Helen Keller

    CONTENTS

    A Note from the Author

    [Introduction] Stories, News, and the Challenge of Optimism

    [1] The Best Way to Live

    [2] A Key to Health, Happiness, and Success

    [3] How to Become an (Even Better) Optimist

    [4] The World Is a Better Place Than You Think

    [5] Welcome to the Age of Optimism

    Checklist for Optimists

    Life Orientation Test Scoring

    Notes

    Resources

    Acknowledgments

    Index

    About the Author

    About The Intelligent Optimist

    A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

    One of the privileges of being a reporter is that it is your job to always look for new stories and thus you always meet new people.

    Through all these meetings over many years I have learned that a lot of people choose vocations that they themselves can learn the most from.

    Many psychotherapists have a great need to heal their own psyches.

    Mediators tend to create conflicts in their personal lives.

    High-energy motivational speakers who talk about the power of positive thinking appear to ignore the negative in their own lives.

    Business gurus who teach that egos are so

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