The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau Review

"When he set out to visit all of the planet’s countries by age thirty-five, compulsive goal seeker Chris Guillebeau never imagined that his journey’s biggest revelation would be how many people like himself exist – each pursuing a challenging quest."

The Happiness of Pursuit is all about quests; what they are, why they are worthy of pursuing, and stories about the author's quest and other people who have set out to do something big and achieved it.

What is a quest? Chris defines it as: a clear goal with a specific end point, challenging, requires sacrifice, driven by a calling, and consists of a series of small steps toward the goal. Therefore general life improvements such as losing weight or quitting smoking doesn't qualify. It has to be something that is worthy of a lifelong focus.

I found this book to be very interesting. I loved reading about all the different characters and the crazy quests they completed. Some of my favorite quests were bicycle around the world, sail the worlds oceans as the youngest solo sailor, protest illegal logging by living in a tree in Tasmania for more than a year, and abstain from motorized transport and maintain a vow of silence for 17 years, among many others.

The book is a bit messy though.. There were a total of 54 quests in this book set out by different people. Some are mentioned very briefly here and there and then some took up larger portions of each chapter and are mentioned throughout. Somebof these quests were very similar. There were multiple different marathon running, bicycle, walking, traveling oriented goals. Needless to say, it was hard to keep track of who's who.

Another thing I found confusing was that from the very beginning the author had set out guidelines as to what a quest is. I think most notably it needs to have a specific end point. So why is devoting life to preparation of sushi or mastering the art of stand up comedy included in this book? Those seem pretty vague to me and are really just career choices. There were a few others that didn't seem to fit the description of a quest either, such as extensively documenting your life or creating a life around crafting projects.

I also wished that he would have gone into more depth as to why he chose to go to every country in the world or how it changed him. I would have liked to have read about some really surreal amazing experiences that he wouldn't have had if it weren't for this quest. Instead his stories were mostly just him in airports, getting lost, taking taxis, going to hotel rooms. It makes me wonder, was he so focused on achieving the goal, that he missed out on the experience?

However, I do appreciate the dedication that the people in this book have. They all set out to do something extraordinary, and most achieved their goals. This inspires me to challenge myself more and incorporate more goal setting into my own life.

Disclaimer: "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."