Book Review: Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar

Meetingmax’s February book of the month was Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar.

Ben-Shahar teaches that the key to being ‘Happier’ is to find activities that provide us both present and future happiness; ultimately to live for today and for tomorrow. He teaches us to incorporate pleasure (present benefit) and meaning (future benefit) into ones life.

Below are a few of the different issues covered in the book:

Happiness is the ultimate currency. Most people mistake money as the ultimate currency when in fact we seek money so we may buy items or experiences which we believe will bring us happiness.

There are four basic archetypes of happiness:

1. Rat Racer: The rat racer is constantly chasing happiness. They believe that sacrificing their own happiness in the present will result in future happiness.
2. Hedonist: The hedonist lives for present happiness without care for future gain.
3. Nihilist: The nihilist has given up on happiness. They don’t believe they can find it in the present or the future.
4. Happiness: Happiness requires that one live both for today and tomorrow, present and future benefit.

Happiness and pleasure are not the same thing. Pleasure is the experience of present gain; meaning comes from having a sense of purpose from the future benefit of our actions. Experiencing pleasure will not bring you happiness. You need to derive both present (pleasure) and future benefit (meaning) to be truly happy.

Gratitude is of utmost importance. Shahar suggests keeping a gratitude journal and writing down five things each day that you are grateful for.

Some examples from the Meetingmax staff on activities that bring them happiness are:

• Running
• Learning new languages
• Working on creative projects
• Computer programming (luckily from our IT guy!)
• Playing sports
• Training for a triathlon
• Running the newspaper in college

The Meetingmax team highly recommends Happier. Overall it scored an 8.9/10 on a scale where 1 equals a book with little value one would not wish to read again and 10 equals a fantastic book with the ability to grow an individual personally, professionally or both.

For more from Ben-Shahar, check out this article where he answers the following questions. 

1. What can people do each day to be happier? 
2. How can we cultivate gratitude? 
3. What happiness techniques are particularly important in today’s world?