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

Rick Foster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2000

What are the secrets of happiness? Which traits or habits do happy people share? This book, combining personal narratives with scientific research, reveals the nine choices that truly happy people make--and explains how such joy-producing principles as intention, accountability, appreciation and truthfulness can be applied in our daily lives to help us join their ranks.

Readers will meet happy people of various ages, backgrounds, and walks of life--from a corporate manager balancing career and family to a Holocaust survivor to a cafeteria worker struggling to make ends meet--and, using the self-assessment tools and practical suggestions in this book, will discover new ways to find genuine happiness for themselves.

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 have earned a reputation as specialists in the topic of happiness through their in-depth studies, interviews, and the application of their model of happiness in their workshops and seminars for major corporations and universities.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399525750
• ISBN-13: 978-0399525759
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #807,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

149 of 154 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Jennifer (Gulf Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How We Choose to Be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People--Their Secrets, Their Stories (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?

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

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

By A Customer

This review is from: How We Choose to Be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People--Their Secrets, Their Stories (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

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

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

By A Customer

This review is from: How We Choose to Be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People, Their Secrets, Their Stories (Mass Market 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!!