The notion of building blocks to accomplish goals — mastering the basic and taking the momentum of that success to tackle the next — has been a staple on self-help bookshelves for decades, applied to everything from teaching pre-schoolers to digging out of debt. Now, author Marco Pertici contends there is also a distinct order to be followed in finding personal happiness.
In To Live and Love Your Life: Prioritizing to have Fun, he lays out an intriguing strategy to having a good life by pursuing your needs, wants and hopes in a specific order. His theory is that one must be in place before moving on to the next. While many believe the secret to a good life is in finding and sustaining relationships, he argues that it is more important to first concentrate on yourself and your most basic needs, such as nutrition, exercise and rest. After those are fulfilled, you should work on personal wants, such as accomplishment and entertainment. Only then do you concentrate your efforts on building relationships. The theory is if you are healthy and confident in yourself, you will have more to offer others.
It is an interesting premise. Unfortunately he fails to fully sell it. As written, the book seems to target a very narrow audience: those who are single, childless and who have copious amounts of time for recreation. Also, the last chapter wanders far afield from his original advice and tries to tackle the meaning of life and predetermination. Readers are left scratching their heads, wondering if the book has been switched with another.
Pertici would be better off sticking to his original thesis and developing it more fully by showing ways it could work for a variety of people and lifestyles. While all may not agree with his method of ordering life, his ideas are worth considering, particularly if presented in a wider context.
Also available as an ebook.
