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Happy Ever After

Escaping The Myth of The Perfect Life

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Happy Ever After

By: Paul Dolan
Narrated by: Paul Dolan
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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Happy Ever After written and read by Paul Dolan.

Get a good education, be successful, get married, have kids and look after your health. This is what we're told will make us happy. But what if these stories are doing more harm than good?

In Happy Ever After, bestselling happiness expert Professor Paul Dolan draws on groundbreaking research and data to bust the common myths about happiness and show that the path to fulfilment is actually far more unexpected than we thought. With straight-talking wisdom, he invites us to reappraise our values, free our minds from the 'narrative traps' of conventional wisdom and write our own version of the good life, based on maximising positive, meaningful experiences that can generate new social benefits - not least greater tolerance for different ways of life.

Happiness isn't what you're told. It's what you do.

 Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Happiness Health Discrimination Mental Health Wisdom

Critic reviews

A star (Daniel Kahneman)
[Praise for Happiness by Design] Few books change one's life; in 48 hours this has improved mine (Jenni Russell)
[Praise for Happiness by Design] Dolan is especially illuminating when it comes to bigger life-choices . . . His book is a powerful reminder not to get caught up in overthinking things, but to focus instead on maximising what actually delivers joy . . . and most of us would benefit from listening to him (Oliver Burkeman)
[Praise for Happiness by Design] Outstanding, cutting-edge, and profound (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, bestselling author of The Black Swan and Skin in the Game)
[Praise for Happiness by Design] The book that will make you quit your job
All stars
Most relevant
Very interesting, well researched and very good to listen to.

Really gives understanding to a lot of unconscious processes.

I wish I had a lecturer like this author when I was at university as I would have loved classes!

Wonderful book

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Really enjoyable narrative on why and how to find happiness in our individual situations. Highly recommended read for both introspection and light listening/reading.

Once upon a time

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“Happy ever after” is a great sequel to Paul Dolan’s book “Happiness by design”. In this book, Paul Dolan takes a macroscopic approach to the studying of various fundamental social narratives such as success,wealth,marriage, and responsibility. Albeit not agreeing with everything mentioned in the book, I still do believe that the book is very tangible and relatable to a wide audience, who in turn can learn a lot about social narratives and their effects on our daily lives. Paul Dolan is also a very straightforward and engaging author, and whose insights are in many cases substantiated by research that he carried out or was a part of. All of this makes reading the book a truly enjoyable experience.

A very tangible and relatable book that gives many insight into social narratives

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I really enjoyed this book. As someone who doesn’t currently live at least one social narrative, this was a wonderful in-depth look at how we judge, and are judged by society. Happiness is definitely living the life you align with and we can all do with reflecting on the drive behind our life decisions. Great read!

Wonderful book!

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this really smashes down the walls of social narratives like kids, marriage and altruism. If you're sick of living your life to societies standards or just want a fresh perspective on life's journey, this is for you.

Great read!

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