Everyone is feeling down sometimes. I bet you know this already from personal experience. In fact, some people enjoy feeling miserable - they find it easier than actually getting up and doing something about it.
But I trust you're not one of those people. Reading this article kind of proves you aren't. I trust that when you're feeling down, you don't enjoy the feeling - you either bear it as the necessary evil that will pass with time, or you actively do something to lift your spirits. Or maybe you practice both, depending on the situation and your current level of willpower and other factors. In any case, you have a pocketful of sunshine of tricks and best practices that you can resort to if you so chose in a time of need, be it a cup of coffee or going to the gym or listening to Christmas songs (works for me every time) or going out to get fresh air.
Or reading a good, uplifting book. But books are usually long, so long that you can't consider them as tricks or best practices since their effect takes days - months even, depending how long it takes to complete the read - to kick in. And you want to get cheered up now, not in January.
So, a short yet uplifting book to the rescue!
The book I'm referring to is by Ayn Rand. The name might immediately bring to mind such bricks like Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and a protest that there's no way she ever wrote anything that could be considered a quick read - but you'd be mistaken to think like that, for there is one particular book that is both amazingly revitalizing and as short as a garden gnome. You can read it in a couple of hours, Anthem that is.
Anthem is about a man living in a communist society where the word "I" doesn't exist. He makes a scientific discovery, unapproved and on his own, which leads to him having to flee the community. He goes to live in the woods and discovers the concept of the individual, along with the word describing it.
The book, short as it may be, celebrates the individual and the power the individual has over themselves and over their surroundings. It excites the reader into believing in themselves and their capabilities to change their lives and their environment to their liking. It reminds you that even though you were feeling down before, you don't have to be anymore, because your abilities exceed your wildest dreams - and nothing is stopping you from realizing them.
How's that for an uplifting idea?
RK
