Discover the Secrets of Happy Families

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” So writes Tolstoy in the famous opening lines to Anna Karenina. It is well then that Bruce Feiler offers 200 new ideas on how to make a happier family in his new book, The Secrets of Happy Families.

Of course, nobody can attempt to try all 200 ideas, and, following the Anna Karenina principle, not every solution works for every unique problem. So Feiler, in a workshop on Big Think Mentor, has structured his lessons into small, simple and actionable plans. 

“To me, the biggest takeaway is you don’t need some master plan,” Feiler says. “You don’t need some big, new scheme that’s going to be hard to set up and impossible to follow. You need to take small steps and accumulate small wins.  What’s the secret to a happy family? Try.”

In the video below, Feiler shares examples from his own family, backed up by the latest research that shows that kids who plan their own schedules, or create their own rewards systems, “are actually building up their brains,” Feiler says. “Their cortexes are getting bigger and they are taking more control over their lives.”

Sign up for a free trial and view Feiler’s Big Think Mentor Workshop here: 

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