Happiness Is a Serious Problem: A Human Nature Repair Manual

In this unique personal growth guide, a blend of self-help and moral philosophy perfect for fans of Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project or Dan Harris’s 10% Happier, talk-radio host Dennis Prager shows us that happiness isn’t just a value—it’s a moral obligation.

When you ask people about their most cherished values, “happiness” is always at the top of the list. In this enduring happiness manifesto, Prager examines how happiness not only makes us better people, but has an effect on the lives of everyone around us—providing them with a positive environment in which to thrive and be happy themselves.

Achieving happiness won't be easy, though: to Prager, it requires a continuing process of counting your blessings—the foundation of gratitude—and giving up any expectations that life is supposed to be wonderful. "Can we decide to be satisfied with what we have?" he asks. "A poor man who can make himself satisfied with his portion will be happier than a wealthy man who does not allow himself to be satisfied." Prager echoes other political commentators in complaining that too many people today see themselves as victims; he submits that the only way to achieve your desires is to take responsibility for your life, cultivate self-discipline, and stop blaming others.

If you're willing to put some thought into building a durable philosophy of life, you will find plenty to mull over in Happiness Is a Serious Problem.

This human nature repair manual offers a new framework for living:

• A Moral Obligation: Prager argues that your happiness isn’t just for you—it has a profound effect on your spouse, children, and everyone you meet.
• The Missing Tile Syndrome: Learn why human nature fixates on what’s missing in life, and how to shift your focus to the beauty of the tiles that are already there.
• Finding Meaning: Discover why a sense of purpose is more critical to lasting contentment than success or fun, and how to cultivate it.
• Overcoming Victimhood: A direct challenge to the modern tendency to blame others, showing how taking responsibility is the only path to achieving your desires.

We are completely satisfied with nothing

There is little correlation between the circumstances of people's lives and how happy they are.

This is the repair manual we should have been handed at birth

When you ask people abouttheir most cherished values in life, "happiness" is always at the top of the list. However, unhappiness does not seem to be the exceptional order to be happy, we first have to battle ourselves.

Happiness is an obligation--to yourself and to others

Not only do we have a right to be happy, we have an obligation to be happy. Our happiness has an effect on the lives of everyone around us--it provides them with a positive environment in which to thrive and to be happy themselves.

"[Prager] has an astonishing ability to state simple truths we hadn't heard articulated before, at least not so clearly, in a way that makes their truthfulness immediately and powerfully obvious." - Wall Street Journal

"[A] cogent and thoughtful examination on why human beings have a moral obligation to be happy" - USA Today

"Prager's latest book challenges readers to realize that they—not any outside force—are the greatest obstacle to happiness." - Los Angeles Times

"There is perhaps no more important task for a person that the research for happiness, and no more reliable guide in that quest than Dennis Prager." - Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People