The Owner's Manual for Happiness--Essential Elements of a Meaningful Life

The happiness literature is about how to be happier. This book summarizes all of that advice, but adds an important caveat: Roughly one person in nine is born happy, and the other eight must find alternatives to happiness. The good news is that the alternatives to happiness are as satisfying or more than happiness itself. These five alternative modes of positive being are flow, fit, progress towards goals, altruism, and community. The theory is accompanied by practical suggestions about achieving these five modes.