Happiness by Design: Change What You Do, Not How You Think

An internationally renowned expert on happiness and behavior reveals a new paradigm for finding lasting happiness

This is not just another happiness book. In Happiness by Design, happiness and behavior expert Paul Dolan combines the latest insights from economics and psychology to illustrate that in order to be happy we must behave happy. Our happiness depends on experiences of both pleasure and purpose over time and what we actually pay attention to. Using what Dolan calls deciding, designing, and doing, we can become happier, more fulfilled, and even healthier people. With uncanny wit and keen perception, Dolan reveals what we can do to find our unique optimal balance of pleasure and purpose, offering practical advice on how to organize our lives in happiness-promoting ways and fresh insights into how we feel, including why:

• It’s important that although having kids can reduce pleasure, it gives us a massive dose of purpose
• Gaining weight won’t necessarily make us unhappier, but being too ambitious might
• A quiet neighborhood is more important than a big house

Vividly rendering intriguing research and lively anecdotal evidence, Happiness by Design offers an absorbing, thought-provoking, new paradigm for readers of Stumbling on Happiness and The How of Happiness.