Happier—Finding Pleasure, Meaning and Life's Ultimate Currency

Training Journal, June, 2008 by Stella Collins

[A] Happier--Finding Pleasure, Meaning and Life's Ultimate Currency

Tal Ben-Shahar

McGraw Hill

ISBN-0071492399

Paperback 12.99 [pounds sterling]

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Tal Ben-Shahar is an author and lecturer at Harvard University. He claims to have taught the most popular-ever course at Harvard--on positive psychology--and now consults and lectures around the world.

This book would appeal to anyone who feels it's time to make a change in their life's direction in order to be happier.

As someone who considers myself to be happy and who's already interested in the field of positive psychology, I began to wonder if I was the right person to review the practicality of this book. There is nothing particularly groundbreaking but it did serve as a useful reminder, and a confirmation.

Ben-Shahar describes it as a workbook and acknowledges that reading it alone will not change your life--you need to create happiness-forming habits and to possibly change your perceptions about what happiness is.

Part one is an exploration of 'What is happiness?', and part two is about its application in education, the workplace and relationships. The final section is a series of meditations on happiness.

I particularly liked regular breaks in the text called 'Time In', when you review what you've read and its meaning to you. There are also longer exercises at the end of each chapter designed to internalise the learning to increase its impact.

Ben-Shahar wants to create a 'happiness revolution', but fortunately he doesn't come across as an idealist living in an ivory tower--he clearly acknowledges the situations where it may not be possible to be happy. He describes the differences between long-term 'steady states' of happiness and short-term, more momentary pleasures.

I did find his hypothesis that happiness is the ultimate currency a little frustrating, as there was only simplistic evidence to support this statement and yet a large part of the book relied upon this being true.

My favourite part of the book was the chapter on setting goals, as it clearly articulated the need for goals, but explained that achieving them is a short-lived 'pleasure', whereas travelling towards the goal is where true happiness can be found.

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