Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

In his book, "Happier," he combines scientific studies, scholarly research, self-help advice and spirituality to help us define what happiness really means, and how we can achieve true happiness in our lives.

Think about how you work when you're feeling truly happy. Time seems to slip by effortlessly. You have good ideas, you're open and excited to work with your team, and you finish the day feeling as if you really did your best work. If the majority of your days could be like that, it's not hard to imagine how far you'd go in life.

Reading this book, and reflecting deeply about our own experience of happiness, can help you achieve the kind of life you've always dreamed about. One where you're working in a meaningful career, striving towards important goals, and living every day to the fullest.

In every chapter, the author prompts us with thought-provoking questions and exercises that force us to look deeply at our own experiences. If you want to get the most value from the book, you'll want to take the time to go through these exercises. They just might inspire you to examine your life, and your pursuit of happiness, in a new way.

If you feel that you're not living the life you could be, or that you're unfulfilled or dissatisfied with your life or career, then this is the book for you.

The author, Doctor Tal Ben-Shahar, is one of Harvard University's most popular lecturers. He graduated Harvard with a double major in psychology and philosophy. He's been featured in The New York Times and other mainstream media, including on several major news networks. He's also been a guest on our Expert Interview podcast series, and you can hear that interview - about perfectionism - on the Mind Tools site.

So, keep listening to find out which of our behaviors will set us on the best path for happiness, why it's in our nature to pursue wealth as a means of happiness, and a simple model you can use to help you find more meaning in your work.

"Happiness" is divided into 15 chapters, with three main sections. In section one, the author covers what happiness is and goes over the essential components of a happy life. In section two, we get useful, real-life strategies for putting these ideas into practice in three areas of our life: education, at work, and in our relationships. In the last section, the author goes over seven meditations that help us ponder the nature of happiness and its place in our lives.

In chapter one, the author briefly covers what initially led him on his own pursuit of happiness. And in chapter two, we start to get into the real meat of the book. Here, the author presents what he calls the Hamburger Model.

This model describes four distinct archetypes of happiness, with each archetype outlining a particular pattern of attitudes and behaviors. He says all of us have characteristics from each of the four archetypes at different parts of our lives.

The Hamburger model is important because the author bases much of the rest of the book on these patterns of behavior. It works like this:

Imagine you have four hamburgers in front of you.

The first hamburger is a regular, junk food burger. It will be tasty and satisfying right now. But you know if you eat it you're going to feel bad later because it's so unhealthy. So what do you do? You go ahead and eat it anyway!

This experience of enjoying present benefit with future detriment represents the "hedonism" archetype. Hedonists seek pleasure now, and ignore the future consequences of their actions.

The second burger is a tasteless, vegetarian burger. Eating this burger may give you a long term benefit because it's so good for you. But it's not enjoyable in the present at all.

This burger represents the "rat race" archetype. And, many of us can probably recognize ourselves here! When we're in the rat race archetype, we put off present happiness for some future gain. Rat racers have the illusion that if they put off happiness today, they'll be much happier in the future.

The third burger is the worst burger of all. It's tasteless and unhealthy. Eating this burger means you experience present and future detriment. This burger represents the "nihilism" archetype. This is the kind of person who has lost their passion for life in the present, and has no expectation of any future happiness.

So, what's the best burger? Well, this is the burger we should all be shooting for. This burger is as tasty and satisfying as the junk food burger, and it's also healthy for us long-term. This burger represents the "happiness" archetype. Happy people experience present as well as future benefits.

This, according to the author, is the foundation for true happiness. When we can experience pleasure in the present, as well as working towards, and expecting, future benefits, we live our best life. You can find out more about the Hamburger model on the Mind Tools site.

In chapter three, the author starts to define the experience of happiness, and why we want it so badly.

As in all the chapters in this book, the author provides us with plenty of thought-provoking concepts and ideas about what happiness really means. He addresses issues such as our quest for meaning in our life, our pursuit of happiness in the present, and how to make full use of our potential so we can live a full and rewarding life.

In chapter four, the author talks about happiness as being the ultimate currency.

We don't need a book to tell us that we often confuse earning more money with being happy. But, research has proven that once our basic needs are met, money in and of itself won't necessarily bring us true happiness.

Think about the typical rat racer. He works for years, often in a job he finds unfulfilling, to achieve a certain promotion or level of income. But when he finally gets there, what happens? He often feels despair, or even hopelessness, because he realizes the money or promotion didn't bring him the meaning and happiness he thought it would.

This is a lesson we encounter time and time again, that material gain is not a surefire route to happiness. Financial security can give us more freedom to pursue activities that make us happy, of course. But even then, it's not the money itself that's valuable, the author says. Rather, it's the positive experiences we've used it to gain.

So why do we keep working so hard for material wealth?

One reason is that it's in our nature to hoard. When we were hunters and gatherers, our ability to stockpile supplies, mainly food, is what determined our survival. Today, this tendency to hoard shows up in our pursuit of wealth.

The author makes an important and meaningful point here. He says our society has slipped into measuring wealth above all other things. The monetary worth of a house, a car or a job can be counted as a sum. But, what those things mean to us is less quantifiable.

The author says it can sometimes be helpful to start thinking of happiness as a currency in its own right. Positive experiences are income, and negative experiences are expenses. When our negative experiences outweigh the positive, we start heading towards what he calls "emotional bankruptcy."

The author spends the next few chapters talking about the importance of goals, as well as our wants versus our needs. These chapters are enlightening and definitely worth your time.

Although all the chapters in "Happier" are insightful and relevant, our favorite was chapter seven, Happiness in the Workplace. In this chapter, the author covers how we can find both meaning and pleasure in our work. If you find yourself unhappy and unfulfilled with your work, then this chapter is definitely not to be missed.

To start, we need to begin by asking some important questions. For instance, am I happy at work? How can I become happier? Can I afford to leave my current role to do something more meaningful? And if not, what could I do to make work more enjoyable?

These deep questions can open the door to self-discovery and meaning in our work. However, we also need to actively seek out and create meaning in our work, or find a position that brings us these things. When we do, the author says, not only will we experience more happiness, but we'll also enjoy greater success as well.

One way to do this is to use the author's Meaning, Pleasure, Strengths Process, also called the MPS Process.

This process is designed to help us find work that gives us all three of these benefits. We get meaning and pleasure, and we use our strengths.

To use the process, start by asking yourself three key questions. What gives my life meaning? What gives me pleasure? What are my strengths?

Write your answers in list form under each of these questions.

Next, you're going to see which of those answers overlap in some way.

For instance, imagine you find meaning in solving problems, working with children and writing. You derive pleasure from being around children, traveling, and reading. And your strengths are your sense of humor, relating to children and problem solving.

Looking at the list, you can see that working with children in some way would fulfill all three areas. But what kind of job would also allow you travel and read and solve problems?

After some careful thought, you might decide that being an English teacher might give you the most happiness. Why? Well, think back to the author's Hamburger Model. Remember, our best chance at happiness comes when we pair present pleasure with future benefits. So, teaching English would give you present pleasure, as well as the future benefit of being able to travel during summer vacation, or having that time off to pursue other goals.

Of course, this is a very simplistic example. But the author gives us several ways we can use the MPS Process in our work. For instance, managers can use this process with their team to help them discover work and projects they will enjoy and find meaningful. Or, students can use the process to choose courses that will give them both present and future benefits.

Even if you're in a role you can't, or don't want to, leave, you can still use the MPS Process to bring more meaning to your work.

The author quotes a study two psychologist researchers conducted on hospital cleaners. One group of workers viewed their job as meaningless and boring. They were just there to clean. As you might imagine, they were dissatisfied with their work.

However, other hospital cleaners looked at their job as engaging and meaningful. What did they do differently?

These cleaners took it upon themselves to engage with the doctors and nurses more. They made an extra effort to make hospital patients and staff feel better. And, they realized they weren't just removing garbage and washing linen. They were helping keep the hospital clean and germ-free. This, in turn, helped patients stay safe and heal faster.

In short, their attitude and perception made them realize their work truly was making a difference to people.

We felt this was an excellent exercise all of us could use to help us find more meaning in our current job, or to help us discover a more meaningful role. The author goes into much more detail in the book, and even provides us with diagrams that help us illustrate how we can draw connections between what brings us meaning and pleasure, and our strengths.

So, what's our last word on "Happier"?

Without a doubt, this is a profound, thought-provoking book that could potentially change the way you look at, and pursue, happiness in your life. If you feel as if your life, and work, is unfulfilling, then you might find the answers and insight you've been looking for here.

Because of the book's deeply philosophical nature, we could only cover a small fraction of what's in it. The author has done a masterful job of covering the basic principles of happiness, and providing us with practical exercises and questions to help us achieve happiness in our own life. The text is readable and engaging, and the author did a thorough job citing the studies and research he quoted.

This is the kind of book you'll want to go through slowly, taking time to consider the concepts and insights the author presents. We have no problem recommending "Happier," and think that readers will get a lot of value out of this book.

"Happier," by Tal Ben-Shahar, is published by McGraw Hill.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.

(For practical tips on how to apply the learnings from this book, see the accompanying article.)