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Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, a professor at Harvard University who leads a positive psychology seminar, wrote Happier "to raise awareness of the general principles underlying a happy and fulfilling life." The philosophical questions surrounding happiness have interested him since the age of sixteen when he became the Israeli national squash champion. He was perplexed as to why after fulfilling his dream he didn't experience the happiness he expected. Of course, he was ecstatic after winning, but almost immediately that feeling was replaced with a returning feeling of emptiness. Dr. Ben-Shehar has continued to explore the subject of happiness while pursuing studies in philosophy and psychology.

This book is well written and broken down into chapters of logical progression. There is a plethora of concrete advice and simple steps to incorporate into one's daily life. I took several pages of notes and found the book enlightening. I'd like to hit on a few observations that I found helpful.

� The author describes his theory of happiness as a merger between Freud's pleasure principle that states that humans are driven by an instinctual need for pleasure and Frankl's argument that "striving to find meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in man."

� The ultimate currency for a human being is happiness because it has intrinsic value. When a person's positive experiences (income) outweigh his negative experiences (expenses), he has made a profit. When the reverse occurs, the outcome is emotional bankruptcy.

•There are three factors that contribute to our level of happiness. The first is our genetic predisposition over which we have no control. The second factor is our current circumstances over which we may have little control. However, we do have considerable control over the kinds of activities and practices we pursue, which is the third factor to our personal level of happiness.

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." -Abraham Lincoln