If You're So Smart Why Aren't You Happy

Book excerpt: What are the true determinants of a happy and fulfilling life? Widely admired psychological researcher Rag Raghunathan sets out to find the answer, undertaking extensive research into the happiness of students, business people, stay-at-home-parents, lawyers, and artists, among others. From his research he reveals a crucial discovery: many of the psychological traits that lead to success ironically get in the way of happiness. Forging a new way forward, Raghunathan shows how we can transform these key traits of success, namely the need to be loved, the need for importance and the need for control, and replace them with other behaviours, goals and values to improve our life-long levels of happiness.