Coming soon · Book Profile
The How of Happiness
A research-based guide to sustainably increasing personal happiness by implementing twelve specific, intentional activities that fit one's personality and goals, capitalizing on the 40% of well-being that is within our control.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Why do our attempts to become happier often fail? In "The How of Happiness," leading research psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky reveals that we've been looking in the wrong places. Drawing on her own groundbreaking research, she dismantles the myths that happiness depends on our life circumstances like wealth, beauty, or marital status. Instead, she presents the scientifically-validated '40% solution': a full 40% of our capacity for happiness is not determined by genes or circumstances, but by our intentional thoughts and activities. The book provides a practical, evidence-based program featuring twelve specific happiness-boosting strategies—from expressing gratitude to committing to goals. To ensure success, it includes a unique Person-Activity Fit Diagnostic to help you identify which activities will work best for you. This is not about finding happiness, but about creating it, offering a concrete path to a more joyful, fulfilling, and sustainably happier life.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- The reader is someone who wants to be happier and more fulfilled but often feels stuck, unfulfilled, or that their previous efforts have failed. They suspect that happiness is tied to external achievements or life changes and are frustrated that these don't bring lasting satisfaction.
- The problem
- The inability to achieve a stable, lasting increase in personal happiness, often leading to a sense of languishing or not living up to one's potential for joy and meaning. Feeling frustrated, disappointed, helpless, or even depressed about one's level of well-being, and questioning if genuine, long-term happiness is even possible for them.
- The plan
- Understand the 'Happiness Pie' to see that 40% of your happiness is within your control.
- Take the 'Person-Activity Fit Diagnostic' to identify the specific happiness strategies that are best suited to you.
- Systematically practice your chosen activities from the twelve evidence-based options provided in the book.
- The payoff
- Achieving a sustainably higher level of happiness, joy, and contentment. · Feeling more energetic, creative, and resilient in the face of life's challenges. · Developing stronger, more meaningful relationships with family and friends.
See our guide
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Additional reading
- Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln · Doris Kearns Goodwin
This book provides the detailed historical narrative for the book's case study of Abraham Lincoln as a successful giver in the world of politics.
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking · Susan Cain
Supports the idea that less dominant, 'powerless' communication styles can be highly effective, which is a key strategy for many successful givers.
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion · Robert Cialdini
The principles of reciprocity and social proof from this book are foundational to understanding why giving can be influential and how giving norms spread within groups.
- Never Eat Alone · Keith Ferrazzi
Presents a strategic, matcher-oriented view of networking ('give before you receive') which Grant contrasts with the more unconditional approach of successful givers.
- Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter · Liz Wiseman
The book's distinction between 'geniuses' (who can be takers) and 'genius makers' (who are givers) is used to frame how givers succeed in collaboration by elevating others.
- The Magic Mountain · Thomas Mann
Frankl cites this novel for its profound psychological study of people living in a 'provisional existence' in a sanatorium, which he found analogous to the inmates' experience of time and futurelessness in the concentration camp.
- The Individual and His Religion · Gordon W. Allport
Quoted to support the therapeutic power of self-detachment and humor ('The neurotic who learns to laugh at himself...'), which Frankl sees as the foundation of his 'paradoxical intention' technique.
- The works of Dostoevski · Fyodor Dostoevski
Frankl repeatedly quotes Dostoevski, particularly two key ideas: 'man is a being who can get used to anything' (which Frankl qualifies) and 'There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings,' which encapsulates the concept of finding meaning in one's attitude toward fate.
- Ethics · Spinoza
Frankl quotes Spinoza's statement, 'Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it,' to explain his own coping mechanism of observing his suffering with scientific detachment.
- The Trusted Executive · John Blakey
The author's previous book, which establishes the importance of trust as a foundation for leadership, a concept that underpins the 'OUT' dimension of this book.