Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: ultimate currency, happiness boosters, happiness revolution, Happiness Explained, Setting Goals, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though everyone wants to be happier, how many of us can actually define what that means? In his class, "Positive Psychology," one of the most popular courses at Harvard University, Ben-Shahar teaches that happiness isn't as elusive a concept as people think, and can actually be learned; he commits the fundamentals of his course to paper in this primer on getting happy, which he defines as a combination of pleasure (short-term happiness) and meaning (long-term). Divided into three parts, "What is Happiness?", "Happiness Applied" and "Meditations on Happiness," Ben-Shahar provides insight and exercises, prodding reflection in readers ("Do you accept negative emotions as natural?" "Do you see your work as a job, a career, or a calling?") while explicating the relationships among happiness, motivation and goals. Though it sounds simple, Ben-Shahar insists on keen self-awareness and purposeful action to overcome entrenched patterns of despondency and/or disbelief. For answer-seekers, this is definitely a good start.
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Review

"It is easy to see how this is the backbone of the most popular course at Harvard today."
—Martin E. P. Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (May 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071492399
• ISBN-13: 978-0071492393
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,633 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #28 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Self-Help > Self-Esteem
  #35 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > Applied Psychology
  #35 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Mental Health > Happiness

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life is A Process, Not An End., May 25, 2007

By	Radical Skeptic (Only In America, Land of Opportunity) - See all my reviews

Life is a process, not an end. If you don't enjoy the process, you're going to hate the end.

I've read the ideas in this book many many times. Yet run through one more point of view is not a bad thing. Actually the author sums up the key to life well lived quite well in this thin book. Have meaningful goals, but enjoy the day to day process or realizing those goals. Appreciation is the key to life. The Psychic bank account. And then he applys them to school, to work, to love. And then he ends the book with meditations.

Give it a try. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

The only criticism, yet not enough to substract a star, is that there are quite a few repeated ideas from his previous work. However, if you have a good idea, no harm in repeating that idea.

114 of 143 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than the rest of the self-help books, May 31, 2007

By	M. Benson (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book approaches happiness with foundations based on research, peer-reviewed psychology publications, and observational logic. It is very well-written and uplifting, without being simplistic. It uses concepts from Csikszentmihalyi , Seligman, Jung, Campbell, Goleman, Branden, Gardner, Persig, and Kahneman, among others. The sections on happiness in education and in the workplace were especially helpful to me and made me realize I was focusing too much on financial rewards for happiness. This book gave me more focus and peace.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'll give this partial credit..., April 20, 2008

By	M. Nichols (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I read "Happier" over the Christmas holidays. It is an easy read, maybe even a bit simplistic in its day glo presentation. It is rooted in the "positive psychology" movement, based on a popular course at Harvard. The findings are hardly groundbreaking: happiness, the author contends, is a mixture of small pleasures in the moment and a sense of meaning in life overall. There are practical exercises ("time ins") in each chapter that should help you center your life around things you enjoy.

A few months after reading this book (I did most of the exercises), I am more focused on small pleasures and am feeling happier than I was. I have also maintained a 25 lb weight loss since the holidays, a first for me. I'm not giving all the credit to this book, but I think it's fair to say it might be one of the things that has helped me this year. This isn't the be all, end all pop psych book, but it's worth a read.