Why write a book on happiness? Why read one?
The answer is “Why write or read a book on anything else?” Surely happiness is the most important subject of all? Surely all the books, and all the time spent thinking about and doing everything else, from Time Management to Making Money, from Philosophy to Gardening, are all aimed at us trying to be happier in our lives. We think that if we had more time, or more money, or knew more about things, or had a nicer garden, that we would be more happy.
But would we?
This book is an attempt to get to the bottom of what makes people happy.
Some people think they know, and spend years going after it, only to find when they get it that it doesn’t really make much difference to their overall happiness in life. Others don’t even know what would make them happy, though they wish they did. Many are in denial about the whole subject, going to work, watching TV or having a drink on a Friday night, going on holiday once a year, and trying not to think about whether this is good enough – and is “good enough” good enough? Is it possible to achieve “really good”?
So – what makes people happy?
Maybe everyone is different and the question is too hard to find a single answer to. Certainly there isn’t one easy answer or we’d all know it and do it.
But what if there were basics that work for everyone, or nearly everyone? Or what if we all want a combination of the same basic things? What if there were some quite simple things that we could do that would make a difference to us? That’s what I’m going to explore in this book.
There are limited things you can do each day in order to increase the amount of happiness that you experience. These limited things break down into three main areas
- How you think
- How you spend your time
- How you spend your money
You have almost no control over everything else around you.
You can control your reaction to things (how you think) but to actually make things different it’s pretty much only time and money that you’ve got. So: what to do with them??
This book is designed to be browsed at random. Maybe try a page a day. Maybe work on the ideas with a friend or a group of friends. Whatever works for you!
Read more about The Big Book of Happiness
Contents:
- Understanding Happiness
- Inside your head – things to get rid of
- Inside your head – things to bring in
- Social
- Your environment
- Time
- Growth and challenge
- Sense of Achievement
- Summing Up
- Top 5 tips for Happiness at Work
- Summing up – My list of 87 actions
Read more about The Big Book of Happiness (inc. full contents)
