Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment by Tal Ben-Shahar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ben-Shahar presents the reader with a straight-forward, quick book that lays out the highlights of research into happiness and into what make us happy. The book, though, is more practicum than theory. Each chapter has exercises that help the reader put these ideas into action. I read the book straight through first and will go back to do the exercises. But already the insights that Ben-Shahar discusses have helped me to think differently about the nature of happiness and its relation to aspects of one’s life (such as work or the future).
Ben-Shahar's uses his own life experiences, hypothetical cases, and metaphors to concretize the theory. I particularly liked his quadrant of the rat-race, hedonism, nihilism, and happiness. This captures more of the nuance of what kind of life (or rather one's perspective on life) is more likely to lead to happiness.
Ben-Shahar's advice is practical and doesn't rely on quick fixes or some formula. It's intellectual work. It's about thinking about one's values and the hierarchy of those values: find out what is important and how to balance these in your life. It is also about finding the balance between past, present, and future. Living in the past or living for the future is not a recipe for happiness. One needs to be present, but can't forget their past or their future either. None of this is easy to do: but the pay off of a happy, fulfilling life is worth the work.
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