Todd Buchholz likes to tell the story that he started out to write a book with the working title, Tail Hunters: How Americans Are Chasing Their Tails and Losing Their Souls.
He would have been following the social trend, not to mention the book publishing one, if he had. Calm is what we’re all exhorted to be, and not just by our yoga teachers and massage therapists. My desk is littered with books aimed at helping people achieve a sense of well-being through meditation, simplifying their lives, and finding satisfaction in what they have rather than what they think they should want.
It’s the social argument of our time: We must slow down, ease our anxiety and shave the edges off the need to be better than the next guy.
So it stands to reason that this coming holiday weekend is what you need. A hammock. A G & T with ice. A summer read. A no-thought zone. Right?
“I made a mistake,” says Mr. Buchholz, an economist and best-selling author, in an interview. “I was going to use my observations of people and how they chase their tails to be the wealthiest, the best-looking, skinniest, whatever it may be, to get their kids into the best schools, and that this was driving us mad.
“But then I realized I had it totally wrong. We feel better chasing the tails, even if we never catch them. The hunt makes us happier.”
The new title: Rush: Why You Love and Need the Rat Race.
Stress is good, he argues. Consider toddlers to whom the walking world is chaos. “Taking a step is a game of chance, and the odds are incalculable,” he writes. “Yet every child is willing to take the risk, to play the odds no matter how steep. We are, simply put, programmed to take risks, to create something better out of chaos.”
Think that girl you like is out of your league? You will feel happier asking her out and risking rejection than remaining silent. Same goes for writing that hard entrance exam. Or asking your boss for a raise.
While he recognizes that too much stress all the time is not healthy, he argues that we are better off with some of it in our lives. He cites obvious medical examples: “De-stressing” for hours in front of a TV may sound great, but numerous studies show that too many hours of inactivity lead to cardiovascular disease.
Drawing on research, social observation and his own experience, the book presents witty and insightful anecdotes to argue that the blissed-out relaxation imperative so many happiness experts extol is wrong.
Mr. Buchholz is determined to pull the yoga mat out from under your perfect alignment.
In a chapter called “We Are All Control Freaks – and Need to Be,” he writes about people who are rich enough to not work, but do, to explain that employment gives people a sense of mastery. “The mistake of so many happiness gurus is this: They do not value the pleasure of power.”
He cites research that shows self-employed people are 29-per-cent more likely to work over 44 hours a week. Neuroscience is brought into the mix when he says that our big frontal cortexes urge us to move forward, to control our environment and survival. “By nature, we are not potted plants (though government policies can turn us into a vegetative state),” he writes.
At this point, you may be thinking what I was when I caught up with the author on his cell phone while he was at Gatwick airport en route with his wife and three daughters to Florence – yes, for a holiday.
“I’m not a workaholic, manic type-A person,” he insisted when I asked if he was capable of relaxation. (It seemed like a highly appropriate question.)
