From the intro of the book:
“Nearly all of us buy into what I call the myths of happiness—beliefs that certain adult achievements (marriage, kids, jobs, wealth) will make us forever happy and that certain adult failures or adversities (health problems, not having a life partner, having little money) will make us forever unhappy. This reductive understanding of happiness is culturally reinforced and continues to endure, despite overwhelming evidence that our well-being does not operate according to such black-and-white principles.”
“One such happiness myth is the notion that “I’ll be happy when __ (fill in the blank).” I’ll be happy when I net that promotion, when I say “I do,” when I have a baby, when I’m rich, and so on.”
“The false promise is not that achieving those dreams won’t make us happy. They almost certainly will. The problem is that these achievements—even when initially perfectly satisfying—will not make us as intensely happy (or for as long) as we believe they will. Hence, when fulfilling these goals doesn’t make us as happy as we expected, we feel there must be something wrong with us or we must be the only ones to feel this way.”
“During the past half century, a huge literature in psychology has documented the many errors and biases that lead human beings to make poor decisions based on their intuitions. To be sure, we often make costly mistakes when making choices.”
Below are my notes:
I’ll be Happy When…I’m Married to the Right Person
I’ll be Happy When…I Find the Right Job.
Will a higher income make you happier?
How to spend money in ways that will actually make you happier.
Beware of Social Comparisons, they are toxic!