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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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First of all I enjoyed it very much, it was fresh, open minded and genuine in general. We clearly need more books about social narratives because so many of us are simply not aware of it and accepting some of the "Truth" as absolute, which is war from the reality of life. However I couldn't help myself but feel that the author was pushing his audience into one social narrative of happiness and that is one and most important goal everyone should inspire to reach. Simply talking the message was that all of social narratives should be replaced with one - choose happiness because we all want to be happy! Yes, it sounds nice, I want to be happy and not miserable but I also know that it's impossible to stay happy all the time, I'd rather seek for fulfillment, peace of mind, purpose instead of smiling 24/7. Also swearing most of the times was completely unnecessary, I'm from working class too but that doesn't mean I have to use F**k as something obligatory...

Generally good and mind opening but...

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Loved the book, some refreshing thoughts and ideas. Although the quality of the recording didn't seem as good as other books I have listened to for some reason? Still well worth a listen

Interesting thoughts

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Clear, incisive, entertaining and accessible. Really enjoyed this, and pretty much got through it in one sitting. Plenty to think about, and plenty to act on.

A brilliant read

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