Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Tom Rath (Author), Ph.D. James K. Harter (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 4, 2010

Much of what we think will improve our wellbeing is either misguided or just plain wrong. Contrary to what many people believe, wellbeing isn't just about being happy. Nor is it only about being wealthy or successful. And it's certainly not limited to physical health and wellness. In fact, focusing on any of these elements in isolation may drive us to frustration and even a sense of failure.

When striving to improve our lives, we are quick to buy into programs that promise to help us make money, lose weight, or strengthen our relationships. While it might be easier to treat these critical areas in our lives as if they operate independently, they don't. Gallup's comprehensive study of people in more than 150 countries revealed five universal, interconnected elements that shape our lives:

The Five Essential Elements

• Career Wellbeing
• Social Wellbeing
• Financial Wellbeing
• Physical Wellbeing
• Community Wellbeing

Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements will provide you with a holistic view of what contributes to your wellbeing over a lifetime. Written in a conversational style by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tom Rath and bestselling author Jim Harter, Ph.D., this book is filled with fascinating research and novel ideas for boosting your wellbeing in each of these five areas.

By the time you finish reading this book, you should have a better understanding of what makes life worthwhile. This will enable you to enjoy each day and get more out of your life -- and perhaps most importantly, boost the wellbeing of your friends, family members, colleagues, and others in your community.

(Each copy of this book includes a unique ID code for Gallup's online Wellbeing Finder, a program designed to help you track and improve your wellbeing over time.)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Why It Pays to Give a Damn: The Business of Wellbeing
    -- From CNBC (read more: cnbc.com/id/37149447)

"The Gallup recommendations take immediate gratification and turn it on its head, making short-term satisfaction an ally rather than an enemy." --The San Francisco Chronicle

"the Wellbeing website...is as addictive as crack" --The Huffington Post

From the Inside Flap

Over the past decade, Gallup has introduced the concepts of strengths-based development and employee engagement to more than 20 million people around the world -- largely through the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath and the New York Times bestseller 12: The Elements of Great Managing, which was coauthored by engagement expert Jim Harter. In Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements, these bestselling authors team up to share the results of a landmark study of wellbeing and its implications for organizations and individuals.

Their groundbreaking research reveals how organizations can help employees boost their overall wellbeing -- from their satisfaction with their careers to their financial security and level of community involvement. After conducting this extensive study, Rath and Harter discovered that much of what we think will improve our wellbeing is either misguided or just plain wrong. When striving to improve our lives, we're quick to buy into programs that promise to help us make money, lose weight, or strengthen our relationships. While it might be easier to treat these critical areas in our lives as if they are independent, they're not. Gallup's comprehensive study of people in more than 150 countries revealed five universal, interconnected elements that shape our lives: Career Wellbeing, Social Wellbeing, Financial Wellbeing, Physical Wellbeing, and Community Wellbeing.

Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements provides you with a holistic view of what contributes to your wellbeing over a lifetime. Written in a conversational style, this book is filled with fascinating research and innovative ideas for boosting your wellbeing in each of these five areas. As a complement to the book, you'll have the opportunity to use Gallup's online Wellbeing Finder to track and improve your wellbeing. By the time you finish reading this book, you'll have a better understanding of what makes life worthwhile. This will enable you to enjoy each day and get more out of your life -- while boosting the wellbeing of your friends, family members, colleagues, and others in your community.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Gallup Press; 1 edition (May 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595620400
• ISBN-13: 978-1595620408
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > Business & Investing > Organizational Behavior > Organizational Learning
  • #18 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Human Resources & Personnel Management
  • #25 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Systems & Planning

More About the Author

Tom Rath is one of the most influential authors of the last decade. He studies the role of human behavior in health, business, and economics. Tom writes and speaks on a range of topics, from wellbeing to organizational leadership.

Tom's next book, EAT MOVE SLEEP: WHY SMALL CHOICES MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE will be released in 2013. To learn more, read an exclusive preview of Eat Move Sleep, or request and Advance Copy, visit: tomrath.org

Tom has written several international bestsellers including the #1 New York Times bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket?, StrengthsFinder 2.0, Strengths-Based Leadership, and most recently Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements. In total, his books have sold more than 5 million copies and made over 250 appearances on the Wall Street Journal's bestseller list.

He serves as a Senior Scientist and Advisor to Gallup, where he previously spent 13 years leading the organization's work on employee engagement, strengths, and wellbeing. Tom also served as Vice Chairman of the VHL cancer research organization. He earned degrees from the University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania, where he is now a guest lecturer. Tom and his wife, Ashley, and their two children live in Arlington, Virginia.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#6 in Books > Business & Investing

#15 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#96 in Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing

#6 in Books > Business & Investing

#15 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#96 in Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 98 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars How to identify, measure, nourish, and then leverage whatever makes life worthwhile May 4, 2010

By Robert Morris HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This is Tom Rath's latest book, co-authored with Jim Harter whose previous book, 12: The Elements of Great Managing, Harter co-authored with Rodd Wagner. Rath explains that in addition to their own research for this book, he and Harter consulted an abundance of research conducted by the Gallup Organization with which they are associated. Moreover, "Gallup assembled an assessment composed of the best questions asked over the last 50 years. To create this assessment, the Well-Being Finder, we tested hundreds of questions across countries, languages, and vastly different life situations."

For me, some of the most important revelations include those that help to explain how people (in a 150 countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe) experience their days and evaluate their lives overall. More specifically, as Rath and Harter explain, five distinct statistical factors emerged. "These core dimensions are universal elements of well-being, or how we think about and experience our lives - the interconnected elements that differentiate a thriving life from one spent suffering." Although 66% of those surveyed are doing well in one of the five areas, only 7% are thriving in all five. "These five factors are the currency of a life that is worthwhile. They describe demands of life that we can all [begin italics] do something about [end italics] and that are important to people in every life situation we studied." Here they are, with my own take on each:

Career Well-Being: To be eager to begin work each day, feel appreciated as a person as well as an employee, respect supervisor, enjoys associates, speak with pride and appreciation about company to others

Social Well-Being: To have several strong relationships, be able toactivate a support system when encountering problems, feel loved

Financial Well-Being: To manage finances prudently, be aware of costs and in control of expenditures, frugal but not cheap

Physical Well-Being: To get sufficient rest as well as rigorous regular exercise, have plenty of energy in reserve, eat sensibly)

Note: In Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, John Ratey explains why there is a direct and decisive correlation between a healthy lively body and a healthy lively brain. Those who have a special interest in this important subject are strongly urged to check out Ratey's book.

Community Well-Being: To be actively and productively engaged in the neighborhood and in the community as well as in various groups within the area such as a church, P.T.A., Crime Watch, Meals on Wheels, homeowners' association, etc.

Rath and Harter have much of value to say about each of these five dimensions of human experience such as their core values, sources of nutrition, strategies for development, threats to well-being, and interdependence with each other. Of even greater value, in my opinion, they suggest what lessons can be learned from responses to Gallup's global surveys during the last 50 years and offer their observations and recommendations in terms of how each reader can improve the quality of life and sense of well-being in each dimension.

They observe, "For many people, spirituality is the thread that connects and drives them in [begin italics] all [end italics] of these areas. Their faith is the single most important element in their lives, and it is the foundation of their daily efforts across each of the five areas. For others, a deep mission, such as protecting the environment, drives them each day. While the things that motivate us differ greatly from one person to the next, the outcomes do not."

Readers will especially appreciate Rath and Harter's provision of a brief summary of the "essentials" at the conclusion of the separate chapter they devote to each of the five elements. They also provide seven appendices in the "Additional Tools and Resources" section and thus enable each reader to complete a number of self-diagnostic exercises within the context they have so carefully formulated throughout the preceding narrative. Appendix A, for example, consists of "The Well-Being Finder: Measuring and Managing Your Well-Being" and Appendix G offers a brief but remarkably comprehensive discussion of "Well-Being Around the World."

Credit Tom Rath and Jim Harter with a brilliant achievement of enduring importance and exceptional significance. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time someone has analyzed hundreds of Gallup's global surveys involving millions of respondents and correlated, indeed integrated what they reveal within a framework that embraces five major dimensions of human experience.

I wholeheartedly agree with them that "one of the best ways to create more good days is by setting positive defaults. Any time you can help your short-term self work with your longer-term aims, it presents an opportunity. You can intentionally choose to spend more time with the people you enjoy most and engage your strengths as much as possible." Once our daily choices are in proper alignment with long-term benefits, our families, our friendships, our workplaces, and our communities will become healthier and thus even more worthwhile. If well-being is the objective, then well-becoming is the opportunity.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Jeffrey Fisher, M.A., Personal and Business Coach May 23, 2010

By Jeffrey Fisher

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book, Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements, is more than just an amazing read it's also an ongoing process. I'll explain. Tom Rath and Jim Harter, both associated with Gallup, were involved in the design of an assessment - the Wellbeing Finder - that tested hundreds of questions across 150 countries and multiple languages, with populations in vastly different life situations. What emerged from the research were five universal elements of well-being that differentiate individuals who are suffering or thriving in their lives. These elements include career wellbeing, social wellbeing, financial wellbeing, physical wellbeing, and community wellbeing.

The book covers all of these areas, as well as much of the research, and provides a rather straightforward guide to help individuals get more out of life and boost their own wellbeing. More than that, within the book you will be able to find a key that allows you to do an online assessment of all these five areas and compare yourself to a large database of individuals demographically. In addition it is possible to record well-being on a daily basis, on all of these five factors, and get some sense of how sometimes subtle changes in your routine or experience can have a significant affect on your wellbeing.

What I love about this book, and the online assessment tool, is that reading it and actively participating in the process really provides you with some concrete areas to improve. The authors make it clear that many of us are unwilling to make long-term changes in our habits even if we know that maintaining our presence lifestyles will lead to significant long-term consequences. Their understanding that regular evidenced-based feedback and concrete goals and action plans can make a huge difference in whether we just survive or thrive.

This is going to be a very popular book!

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Concise Authoritative Book, but One Element is Missing August 20, 2010

By Ken Hart

Format:Hardcover

I read the Rath and Hartner wellbeing book and I loved it. I teach Positive Psychology at the University level and found it really attractive to have something so authoritative and concise and so user friendly. The relevance of the info and how only useful info was included was also attractive. I read in on the bus and only took less then 1.5 hrs. The ease of reading was a big plus. The 112 pages of core text is impressive because it is so very jam packed with vital/key info, but not in a cluttered way or a way that made the info inaccessible. I know the research and so know what was being said had plenty of empirical support. Yet, the science foundation was strategically downplayed in favor of increased user-friendlyness and accessibility. Lack of references was a plus in regards student buy-in/uptake/readability. So, to summarize, the main thing I liked most was the concise efficiency and effectiveness/persuasiveness of info delivery.

Plus, each sentence was masterfully crafted for maximum communication value in a way that packed a desirable intellectual punch. Bravo to the authors for making an art out of communicating science. Its a really truly a work of art. Rarely is science make to be so very appealing to the popular culture. And not just appealing but useful info too. I liked how it was both an authoritative read but also a friendly read.

In terms of weaknesses, being a psychologist, i felt the major limitation was they left out what I consider to be the 6th Element. It really did come as a surprise that Rath and Hartner overlooked Psychological Wellbeing. I see they compensated for the excessive autistic nature of many Psychological models of Wellbeing. It was a real strength to include coverage of career, social, physical wellbeing. I don't often see financial wellbeing being included and liked the expanded concern with the person's ecology. The chapter on community wellbeing was wonderful, again featuring the contextualized person. But, the thinking, feeling, yearning, experiencing, sensing, and motivated person was missing. A 6th Element to address this would make the next edition of the wellbeing book more appealing to psychologists. Still, its incredibly strong and I will extract some info and place it in my lectures when i teach Positive Psychology in the Fall of 2010, at the University of Windsor (Ontario Canada).s