This is Your Quest - Your Mission to Find Happiness
Author:Author_Joanne_Reed
Joanne Reed The Author
Author of "This is Your Quest". You can't buy happiness but you can buy books. Your mission, should you wish to accept it is to experience happiness
The French Edition of “This Is Your Quest” is storming up the Amazon Sales Charts and takes the #15 spot 😀! Thank you 🙏 to everyone who has bought my book and visited my website. Welcome on board! You are up for an Epic Journey!
“En Quete du Bonheur” takes the #15 spot!
Did you know that out of the top 100 bestsellers books on Amazon 66 of those are non-fiction and 34 are fiction! The top selling non-fiction are: #1 Biographies & Memoirs, #2: Self-Help, #3: Religion & Spirituality, #4: Health, Fitness & Dieting, #5: Politics & Social Science, #6: Cook Books, Food & Wine, #7: Business & Money, #8: Parenting& Relationship, #9: Education & Teaching, #10: Crafts, Hobbies & Home.
Life is a balancing act and your Quest should be to embrace the ups & downs, the good & the bad, the joy & the challenges.
Whatever you do you need balance. Life is a balancing act.
The Golden Mean
In chapter 14 of my book This Is Your Quest I describe with the help of Aristotle, the concept of the golden mean. Aristotle explains that the golden mean is an intermediate condition between two other states: one involving excess and the other deficiency. To take an example, the courageous person judges that some dangers are worth facing and others not, and experiences fear to a degree that is appropriate to his circumstances. The courageous person lies between a coward, who feels every danger and experiences excessive fear, and the rash person, who experiences little or no fear. Finding the golden mean in any situation is not a mechanical or thoughtless procedure but one which requires a full and detailed acquaintance with the circumstances.
This golden mean concept is known as the middle way in Eastern Philosophy, such as Buddhism; it describes the path between two extremes. The middle way can be considered a universal pursuit – a Quest for a way of life that would give the greatest value to human existence.
The 6th June is the date that marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day Landings where more than 150,000 American, British & Canadian troops landed in Normandy. The invasion was the largest air, land and sea invasion in history.
In Chapter 14 of This Is Your Quest I describe philia as the deep friendship that develops between brothers in arms who fight side by side on the battlefield. In this chapter, I pay homage to the fallen heroes who went to war but never returned home 😢.
In Chapter 20 of This Is Your Quest I describe agape as a selfless unconditional type of love. War is a concept that promotes hatred, violence, domination and death. It is at the opposite end of the spectrum to agape. From the beginning of time, war has always served the purpose of the rulers. War is people dying. War is property being destroyed. War is commerce being disrupted.
The D-Day landing is known as the beginning of the end of the war. The death toll was enormous but the battle was decisive in bringing long lasting peace to Europe.
Peace is better than war. Being free is better than being enslaved. Love is better than hatred.
The French Flag is called the Tricolore. It consists of 3 vertical stripes of blue, white and red. It was established as the flag of France after the French Revolution of 1789. Red & Blue were the colours of Paris. White was the colour of royalty. With the white sandwiched between the red and the blue, it symbolized the control of the people over the monarchy. Today the colours are said to mean: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity ideals associated with the Revolution that still resound in the hearts of many French Citizens. Another interpretation is that the blue represents the people’s history, the white the people’s hope and the red the blood of their ancestors.
French Flag – Le Tricolore
Royal French Flag before the Revolution
Before the French Revolution the Royal French flag was designed with Fleur-de-Lis, which was the emblem of the King of France and a symbol of the French Monarchy. Historians believe that the three petals of the Fleur-de-Lis represent the three medieval social estates: the commoners, the nobility and the clergy. The Fleur-de-Lis was said to represent a symbol of the king’s divinely approved right to rule.
“If it’s worth celebrating, it’s worth celebrating in hotpants.”
Only 48 hours after its launch the French edition of “This Is Your Quest” is storming up the Amazon Sales Charts! Thank you to everyone that has bought my book and visited my website. I hope that you find something inside to inspire you!
Launch Photo for the French Version of “This is Your Quest”
En Français
48 heures seulement après son lancement, “En Quête du Bonheur” fait irruption dans les ventes d’Amazon! Merci à tous ceux qui ont acheté mon livre et visité mon site internet. J’espère que vous y trouverez de quoi vous inspirer !
Amazon France Sales Chart for 30 May 2019.
“This is Your Quest” at #47 on Amazon France Self Help Books – Rankings 30 May 2019
EN EXCLUSIVITÉ ! LA VERSION FRANÇAISE DE MON LIVRE EST DISPONIBLE !
Un voyage passionnant à travers l’histoire, le discours socio-économique et la discussion philosophique. Ce livre vous guidera, en utilisant une approche holistique, pour trouvers le vrai bonheur. Cet ouvrage a le potentiel de bouleverser votre façon de penser en vous exposant à des concepts, des philosophies et une façon de penser (par vous-même ) qui n’était peut-être pas évidente auparavant.
En Quête du Bonheur – Joanne Reed
Offrant une abondance d’information et de stimulations sur plusieurs sujets clés, il decompose le bonheur en trois parties (l’argent, l’amour et la santé), qui ont le pouvoir de nous rendre heureux quand les choses vont bien, mais aussi la capacité de nous rendre vraiment malheureux dans le cas contraire.
Notre Quête du Bonheur commence en suivant des exemples historiques et actuels de héros des temps anciens et modernes, ceux qui ont réussi dans leurs propres Quêtes. Vous serez séduit, surpris et inspiré par ce livre. Les mots ont de la profondeur, le récit est extraordinaire et le message à la fois tendre et provocateur. Etes-vous prêt pour votre Quête?
PARTAGEZ TOUT AZIMUTS SOUS LE FORMAT TRAÎNÉE DE POUDRE! FEEL FREE TO SHARE WITHOUT MODERATION!
By popular demand, the Second Edition of “This Is Your Quest” is out! In this new edition you will find some new analysis on some current events, some points have been refined, and some new wisdom has been added! There is more to it than there was before!
Watch the trailer below:
Second Edition of “This Is Your Quest” is out!
In this new edition you will find some new analysis on some current events, some points have been refined, and some new wisdom has been added! There is more to it than there was before!
Pick up your copy today and follow me on this Epic Adventure!
I was a special guest of Mario Porreca who is the host and founder of 10 Minute Mindset Podcast. Mario reached out to me because he believes that I have a story (through my book) that the world needs to hear.
Let’s talk philosophy and let’s find out why we should pay attention to the philosophy of the philosophers! Hint … it is because philosophers know the fundamental thing: how to live! Philosophers are experts in the art of living.
10 Minute Mindset with Mario Porreca – Episode 2 – “The Point of Life”
You can listen to the podcast by going on Mario’s website or by playing the file below (interview starts at 6:45):
I was a special guest of Mario Porreca who is the host and founder of 10 Minute Mindset Podcast. Mario reached out to me because he believes that I have a story ( through my book) that the world needs to hear.
Mario asked me to tell him what led me to write my book. He was very interested in the fact that I talk a lot about history, philosophy and economics in the book and wanted me to tell him more about why these are important when we go on our own journey of self-discovery on our own Quest.
10 Minute Mindset with Mario Porreca – Episode 1 – “This is your Quest”
You can listen to the podcast by going on Mario’s website or by playing the file below (interview starts at 5:52):
This picture was taken in the Gardens of Suzhou in China walking on the smallest bridge ever built. A key message that transpires throughout my book is that small things count, and those small things are the key to happiness. It is very inspiring to hear stories of heroine such as Yu Gwan Sun or Joan of Arc (who features on the cover of my book) but ultimately not everyone has inside of them that capacity to do heroic deeds.
The World’s smallest bridge?
You don’t have to go out there and save the world. Every person great or small has important work to do. I believe that there is for each and every one of us a goal that we must follow. But it doesn’t have to be something extraordinary or amazing. It can be something very small indeed, that is the key to happiness.
Small things are important because the world needs more people who are content and happy.
Yu Gwan Sun (1902-1920) was a heroine of Korea’s Independence movement using non-violent means to protest against the Japanese occupation. She was imprisoned after taking part in the March 1st Independence Movement and was a true inspiration for the whole nation. She died from her abuse & torture at the young age of 17 years.
The ID of a schoolgirl who became the face of a nation’s collective yearning for freedom
Yu Gwan Sun’s History
Yu was a student at Ewha Haktang in Seoul, which was established by American missionaries as the first modern educational institution for women in Korea. On March 1, 1919, Yu and four classmates joined others taking to the streets with cries of Mansei! (Long live Korean independence!). Protest organizers came to Ewha Haktang and encouraged Yu and her peers to join a student demonstration to be staged on March 5, she and her classmates marched at Namdaemun, a gate in central Seoul.
A few days later, Yu returned to her hometown, Cheonan, about 53 miles south of Seoul in South Chungcheong Province, with a smuggled copy of the Declaration of Independence. She went from village to village spreading word of the Samil (literally three-one, or March 1) Movement and rallying local residents to organize their own protests. By early April Yu was distributing homemade taegeukgi, or Korean national flags, and giving speeches calling for independence. The Japanese military police arrived at one of the protests and fired on the crowd, killing 19 people. Yu’s parents were among the dead.
By the time the authorities quashed the protests a few weeks later, an estimated two million people out of a population of 20 million had participated in 1,542 pro-independence marches, according to Djun Kil Kim, author of The History of Korea. More than 7,000 people had been killed, and about 46,000, including Yu, had been jailed. After being convicted of sedition, she was sent to Seodaemun Prison in Seoul where she was repeatedly beaten and tortured for speaking out. “Japan will fall,” she wrote shortly before dying of her injuries on Sept. 28, 1920, at 17.
“Even if my fingernails are torn out, my nose and ears are ripped apart, and my legs and arms are crushed, this physical pain does not compare to the pain of losing my nation,” she wrote in prison. “My only remorse is not being able to do more than dedicating my life to my country.”
Photos taken at Yu Gwan-sun Birthplace near Cheonan, South Korea
A Resistance
In March 2019 the movie, A Resistance was released in South Korea to mark the centennial of the March 1 Independence Movement. There have been several biographic films of Yu in the past, but A Resistance: The Story of Yu Gwan-sun directed by Jo Min-ho, delves deeper into her emotions as she spends her days inside the prison along with other inmates.
I wrote about histories like Yu’s in my book 📖 because we can gain wisdom and courage by acts of bravery by the oppressed against their aggressors.
General Kim Si-Min was a prominent Korean General during the Joseon Dynasty. He is most famous for defeating 300,000 professionally trained Japanese soldiers with an army of just 3,800 men comprising of farmers, scolars, monks and women.
Thank you to Monk Beobhye (who is a direct descendant of General Kim Si-Min) for his hospitality and for sharing this amazing story of courage and determination.
This army was known as the Righteous Army. Victory was obtained thanks to General Kim Si-Min ability to motivate and inspire his people to fight for their freedom and independence, thanks also for their superior strategy of using archers who had the power to accurately hit their targets from far away, and for their ability to find innovative ways to conduct warfare. This battle established General Kim Si-Min firm reputation as a fierce warrior. In Japanese theater play the villain is known as Moksa 👺 – Legend has it that Moksa is General Kim Si-Min.
In my book I described the act of courage of the opppressed against the aggressor.
General Ki Si Min’s first act of bravery was to kill a snake that was terrorizing his village when he was only 7 years old.
