How We Choose to Be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People--Their Secrets, Their Stories [Paperback]

Rick Foster (Author), Greg Hicks (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 1, 2004

Now featuring new research and the most current information on the science of happiness, this book presents an outline of the nine choices happy people consistently make.

Also included are tools for self-assessment to allow readers to measure happiness-and to find out what might be holding them back from having more of it. Insightful, intimate, and inspiring, How We Choose to Be Happy lets readers learn by example, and take substantial steps toward joining the ranks of the extremely happy.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Foster and Hicks conduct workshops internationally in the development of interpersonal skills. For this book, they interviewed happy people from all walks of life, from the United States to Eastern Europe. The resulting personal stories, writing exercises, and quotes together inform and instruct the reader in the nine principles discovered by the authors in their travels. Foster and Hicks use their nine choices to teach leadership development in the corporate world and also as a diagnostic tool for medical doctors. These choices include the active intention to be happy, accountability, identifying needs and desires, and centralizing goals by creating a dream list. These are followed by recasting (looking at experiences in positive ways), exploring options, appreciating every day, the art of giving, and, finally, exploring truthfulness. Similar to Sarah Ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance (Warner, 1995) and the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, this is recommended for public libraries and consumer health collections.?Lisa S. Wise, Broome Cty. P.L., Binghamton, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Rick Foster and Greg Hicks are professional training consultants with a specialty in developing interpersonal skills. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area, they conduct workshops and seminars throughout the United States and internationally, in public, private, and corporate forums, including in such major venues as Hewlett Packard, Toyota America, U.C. Berkeley, and UCLA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade; Reprint edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039952990X
• ISBN-13: 978-0399529900
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

162 of 167 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy People are Wise People September 16, 1999

By Jennifer

Format:Hardcover

I am a happy person. I won't go so far as saying I am wise, but I did not become happier by accident. It was a conscious choice.

I read "How We Choose to Be Happy" to see if the authors had come to the same conclusions I had. They did. I have been carrying a small card around with me since 1996. It says things like "experience & express gratitude," "make happiness a priority," and "be present." It's amazing how many of the choices listed in this book are on my old beat up card. Maybe it's not a coincidence.

In our culture there is this odd belief that you must be an idiot if you're happy. I have no idea how this myth got started but I have found just the opposite to be true. It takes a logical mind to see where choice is involved in our emotions. My life circumstances are not totally how I would like them to be. I decided to not wait for ideal conditions before I experienced joy. I figured out that I could experience happiness WHILE creating the life I wanted. If I waited for everything to be perfectly how I wanted it to be, I concluded I might be waiting a very, very long time.

Get the book. Make it personal by seeing how the choices might apply in your life. Why wait?

62 of 65 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book changed my life. October 30, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I wish that I could give everyone this book! When I read this book in my mid-30s, I had come to the sad conclusion that I was somehow incapable of being happy. I had everything I'd ever wanted -- a wonderful husband and two adorable children whom I loved very much, a great job with a good income, etc., etc. And yet I kept falling into despair ... I couldn't figure out how to be happy, and finally decided that my brain was just not "wired" for happiness. But when I stumbled across this book a few years ago, it changed everything. Of course, I still have normal bad days, times when I feel sad or discouraged. But it's different now -- I don't despair -- I know that I'm finally learned how to be truly happy, and nothing can take that away from me now. READ THIS BOOK!!

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, practical and timely! July 19, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

While many of us work very hard, few of us can sincerely claim to be truely fulfilled and genuinely happy. From analysis of the life stories of many genuinely happy people, Hicks and Foster synthesize a simple yet powerful and practical model for achieving happiness in our daily lifes.

Though "How We Choose to be Happy" is not a psychology book, the Nine Step Model is firmly founded in Human Potential psychology. All we Humans want to be in control of our lives. When we aren't in control we feel powerless, victimized and possibly alienated. When we are in control, we feel powerful, actualized and HAPPY. This well written book helps us recognize a straight forward path toward greater personal control of our lives and the rewarding happiness that results.

I highly recommend for old and young--anyone searching for more complete meaning in their lifes.

Richard Neslund

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical Resource: Not A Self-Help "Plan" November 23, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

The author's outline of the "9 choices of extremely happy people" seems fairly complete: intention (to be happy), accountability (for one's own happiness), identification (of what makes one happy), centralization (making working towards happiness central in daily life), recasting (interpretation of tragic or unhappy experiences for redeeming value), options, appreciation, giving, and truth. I like that their "outline" doesn't require one to necessarily rely on a religious or supernatural belief that not everyone will necessarily share, nor do they have a one-size-fits-all approach that equates success with happiness. Although I don't really want some psychologist, self-help author, or religious leader to prescribe a detailed magic formuala for happiness, other people may miss having a detailed course of "what do we do now?" Another weakness (unavoidable) is that the author's acknowledge that perhaps only 50% of happiness is voluntary, the other half may be genetically or biologically determined, that is hardwired into us. Still, we have to start somewhere. I think that the 9 choices are useful to evaluating the way we leading our lives and making some improvement.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Somebody's getting it right! October 18, 2002

By violetta s.

Format:Paperback

I think a lot of us suspect that happiness doesn't actually spring from weiging less, getting rich or getting someone to love you. Plenty of books tell you what won't make you happy. But where does happiness come from, then? The authors of this book make it clear that it doesn't come from the Happiness Fairy, it comes as a result of certain decisions that anyone can make. I was very fortunate to come across an excerpt from this book in a review, on the fridge of a family friend. It listed the steps one must take in order to be happy. At the time, I was 21 years old, miserable and desperate, wanting to leave what I now know was a very abusive relationship. I was so beaten down emotionally that the idea that my happiness was important, that I needed to "intend" to be happy and to make it central to my life (2 of the steps), was astounding. I could do that?? Close to the end of the relationship (coincidentally?), I got this book. It was exactly what I needed. I learned how to figure out what things would make me happy and to take responsibility for doing those things. It's not about being selfish. Only truly happy people can be truly generous. This book was an important part of me leaving that person, getting back in school, taking care of myself for real, rebuilding my life. Nowadays, I am a happy person with a life that I love, and I periodically go back through the steps, because what makes you happy changes. As people have said, happiness is a way, not a goal. I would recommend this book to anyone, period. It was truthful, it was simple, it was helpful--not intrusive or dictating, just factual with that ring of clarity and common sense. It's not flighty or self-centered to want to be happy, it's the necessary first step to a life worth living through. You can make the choice too.... It's work, but it's worth it! Read more ›