Leader Book Club

The Pursuit of Perfect: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Start Living a Richer, Happier Life

Here’s what Philippe Leboeuf, GM of Mandarin Oriental Paris, scheduled to open in 2011, recommended we read. Leader dipped in.

When Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D taught Positive Psychology at Harvard University a few years ago, it turned out to be the most popular course, attracting over 850 students. The best-selling author of Happier was obviously on to a something: teaching happiness is a winner.

In The Pursuit of Perfect, Ben-Shahar says that it’s our pursuit of perfection (all good hoteliers take note!) that actually stands in the way of our reaching the happiness grail. It’s the Perfectionist’s refusal to accept failure, and his or her tendency not to be satisfied with goals reached -- however challenging they will have been -- that limits one’s capacity for joy. In this way, the Perfectionist is actually someone who shoots himself in the golden foot. Better to be the Optimalist who, rather than fearing failure, takes it for what it is and forges ahead. According to Ben-Shahar, one is rigid, the other flexible; one is critical, the other forgiving. All this, and we’re still on the dust jacket!

Ben-Shahar uses the workbook treatment to teach readers – many of whom are undoubtedly successful-yet-seeking -- how to unleash their inner Optimalist. There are sentences to finish, thoughts to ponder (‘Time In’).

Using the findings of new research in positive psychology, he also draws on the experiences and wisdom of poets, philosophers, psychologists, and social scientists. In one section, we are reminded of the approach to anxiety espoused by the eminent Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl (his slender tome Man’s Search for Meaning has injected meaning to many a life).

The last third of the book is taken up by 10 chapters on different ‘Meditations’ towards optimalism, the most poignant, and ultimately rapturous, being ‘the role of suffering’. According to Ben-Shahar, sometimes it’s the experience of pain that reminds us of our limitations.

The Pursuit of Perfect: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Start Living a Richer, Happier Life is available at Amazon.com