Jurriaan Kamp - The Intelligent Optimist’s Guide to Life: How to Find Health and Success in a World That’s a Better Place Than You Think

More Praise for The Intelligent Optimists Guide to Life

Every person in the world wants the same thingto lead a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life. Yet most of us feel that ultimate goal is determined by external factors. In this fact-based, simple, and pragmatic book, Jurriaan Kamp shifts all the power into our own hands by illustrating that our view of the world around us is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Bert Jacobs, cofounder and Chief Executive Optimist, The Life is good Company

Optimism is both the precondition and the precursor for individuals and organizations in making meaningful change, and Jurriaan Kamp does a wonderful job of reminding us just how powerful it can be.

Walter Robb, Co-CEO, Whole Foods Market

More and more research confirms that optimism is a critical ingredient of longevity and a healthy lifestyle. Jurriaan Kamps book shows how you can improve your health through optimism.

Andrew Weil, MD

This book is like a good companion: it cheers you up.

Ben Knapen, former State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands

An inspired and inspiring guide to living with optimism in a world that is increasingly jaded and pessimisticuplifting, rousing, and challenging us to dream the world into being in a positive and creative manner.

Alberto Villoldo, bestselling author of Shaman, Healer, Sage

Optimism is a mindset, a lens through which to look at the world around us. It takes this mindset to be able to adapt to the changes that technology and climate change will bring our way. More importantly, this mindset also will give us the resolve to not just let change happen; we are the masters of our destiny and can shape a better world for all.

Peter Bakker, President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Thoughtfulness and inspiration are two ingredients that are mixed into a perspective that helps us look at the world as an optimist. There are many ways to journey through life, but the goal surely must be to live well. A good read and one you will want to pass on!

Arkadi Kuhlmann, founder and CEO, ZenBanx

The world is full of opportunities for anyone wishing to see them. Media blur that vision and feed pessimism and depression. Optimism is in short supply. That should change and this book points the way.

John Mackey, founder and Co-CEO, Whole Foods Market

Pessimists, beware! This little book has the power to turn your mind around and, with it, your life! Rarely has the case for optimism been made with such precision and persuasion. The author has a genius for seeing deeply into the nature of our time and gives examples of how the world that seemingly isnt working actually isand in a most elegant manner. To read this work is to cease giving credence to the whiny naysayers and instead to join the band of angels who carry a passion for the possible, advance the solutions, and engage in the creation of an emergent positive, practical, and successful world. Above all, it is fair to say that those readers who embrace the optimists way will even stop boring God.

Jean Houston, PhD, author of The Wizard of Us

Theres no problem in this world without a potential solution. Whats too often lacking is the strategy to find these new solutions. That strategy is optimismthe desire to find the solution wherever it might be. Its the vital force for innovation in business and society. This is your handbook to create and contribute your solutions. Read and implement it!

Rinaldo Brutoco, entrepreneur and Founding President, World Business Academy

This is a thought-provoking, challenging, and inspirational book. Jurriaan Kamps unique way of looking at how we filter, use, and approach news and information is well worth considering. He is on a mission to help us all realign our thinking. Do yourself a favor and take the time to read and absorb The Intelligent Optimists Guide to Life.

Robert J. Rosenthal, Executive Director, The Center for Investigative Reporting

Jurriaan is just the kind of visionary we need today: well-informed, pragmatic, and indefatigably optimistic. His lively book should wake up readers who are using their pessimism as an excuse for inactivity.

Bryan Welch, Publisher and Editorial Director, Ogden Publications, and General Manager, Cappers Insurance Service, Inc.

THE INTELLIGENT OPTIMISTS GUIDE TO LIFE

How to Find Health and Success in a World Thats a Better Place Than You Think

Jurriaan Kamp

The Intelligent Optimists Guide to Life

Copyright 2014 by Jurriaan Kamp
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
1333 Broadway, Suite 1000
Oakland, CA 94612-1921
Tel: (510) 817-2277, Fax: (510) 817-2278
www.bkconnection.com

Ordering information for print editions
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the Special Sales Department at the Berrett-Koehler address above.
Individual sales. Berrett-Koehler publications are available through most bookstores. They can also be ordered directly from Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626; www.bkconnection.com
Orders for college textbook/course adoption use. Please contact Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626.
Orders by U.S. trade bookstores and wholesalers. Please contact Ingram Publisher Services, Tel: (800) 509-4887; Fax: (800) 838-1149; E-mail: /Ordering for details about electronic ordering.

Berrett-Koehler and the BK logo are registered trademarks of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-62656-275-2
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-276-9
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-277-6

2014-1

Interior design: Laura Lind Design. Editor: Pam Suwinsky. Cover design: Carl de Vaal. Proofreader: Henri Bensussen. Horseman image: Ruediger Dahlke. Indexer: Do Mi Stauber. Production service: Linda Jupiter Productions.

To Hlne, the love of my life and the better optimist

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed an uncharted land or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.

Helen Keller

One of the privileges of being a reporter is that it is your job to always look for new stories and thus you always meet new people.

Through all these meetings over many years I have learned that a lot of people choose vocations that they themselves can learn the most from.