Beyond Happy
“A cracking, thought-provoking and important read. It’s a book I will be dipping into for months and even years to come”
“A thoughtful guide to living with pleasure, fulfillment, and purpose.”
Out now in the UK and Australia.
“A cracking, thought-provoking and important read. It’s a book I will be dipping into for months and even years to come”
“A thoughtful guide to living with pleasure, fulfillment, and purpose.”
Out now in the UK and Australia.
Beyond Happy explores how evolution has wired us to keep happiness just out of reach, leaving us perpetually stuck on a happiness treadmill. Instead of striving to escape it, the book argues, we should focus on making the treadmill a place we want to be. Finding this wellbeing begins with listening to our emotions, discovering intrinsic motivation and pursuing our authentic values. Fabian coaches you through this process of self-actualisation. Wellbeing, however, is not solely an individual pursuit – it is something we cultivate together.
Most profoundly, Beyond Happy shows the way out of nihilism – the pervasive sense that life on the treadmill is purposeless and incoherent. To escape this despair, we must develop a moral compass. To heal the toxicity of our acrimonious politics, we need to rediscover the joy of sharing and celebrating what we love.
Delivered with an entertaining mix of academic precision, a podcaster’s knack for storytelling, and the down-to-earth panache Australians are known for, Beyond Happy is a one-stop shop to everything you need to know about the good life.
“Essential reading... Written with clarity, vivacity and depth”
“Definitive...a lovely book”
“Deep and rich”
“A comprehensive book that weaves together insights from philosophy, politics, economics, psychology, anthropology to name a few, which despite doing so manages to remain an engaging read”
“A gritty, challenging, inspiring, and theoretically grounded exploration of what happiness is, and the work we need to do – both individually and collectively – to live well, get beyond happiness, and experience more of it”
“Highly recommended – a deep and thoughtful reflection on what makes a good person and a worthwhile life”
The popularity of self-help books speaks to a common malaise in our society. Many people feel that their lives could be better – more pleasant, fulfilling or valuable, or have more meaning or purpose. Or perhaps life isn’t making sense to them, and that’s a bother. Everything seems a bit chaotic or stressful or mundane. Even more broadly, they might feel like society has lost its common purpose and isn’t providing a clear path towards wellbeing for everybody. What should they do with their lives? And why?
I had similar thoughts in my adolescence, which triggered a depressive episode that lasted several years. This was out of character for me, as until then I had generally been happy-go-lucky and upbeat. My depression wasn’t chemical in origin; it was philosophical. As I became more politically minded, I began to see the world as run not by enlightened heroes, but by venal and corrupt individuals only kept in check by fragile institutions. This coincided with some painful first forays into love, making me question my self-worth. There soon followed the looming requirement that I graduate from high school and enter the ‘real world’, meaning that I had to figure out what I was going to do with my life, which also meant answering some rather fundamental questions. I wanted to do something good. I wanted to be good. But what even is ‘good’?
Mark is adept at communicating with general audiences, having written for The Scotsman, Irish Times, Daily Express, and Daily Mirror and appearing on numerous podcasts including Behavioural Grooves, Happier at Work, and Accidental Gods. He also hosts ePODstemology, which platforms early career researchers with bold new ideas for tackling the many challenges of the 21st century. He is one of the most popular lecturers at the University of Warwick, with student satisfaction scores consistently above 90%.
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