Happiness: The Art of Living with Peace, Confidence, and Joy

by Douglas A. Smith

Overview

In the midst of a successful business career, Doug Smith received life-altering news that set him on an entirely new journey to understand what leads to truly joyful, meaningful living-in other words, what leads to happiness. Through research and study, he began to understand that what the most joyful among us have in common is that they remember the past with peace, anticipate the future with confidence, and live in the present with joy and exuberance. Additionally, he discovered that what gives them this perspective is a set of skills that they consistently, even if subconsciously, practice. He also realized that he is not particularly good at several of these skills. In Happiness: The Art of Living With Peace, Confidence and Joy, the author recounts, with insight and humor, his journey to better understand and practice the skills of happiness with the goal of helping others on their own path to joyful, meaningful living.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780986070808
Publisher:	White Pine Mountain
Publication date:	01/02/2014
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	11.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Douglas A. Smith is a teacher, consultant, and coach to business leaders. He has an MBA from Dartmouth College and a BA and honorary doctorate from DePauw University, where he teaches a course titled the Skill of Happiness. He is a frequent lecturer at Canyon Ranch and at various corporate and educational events throughout the country.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Morning on the Other Side of Complexity

Chapter 1 Sunrise from White Pine Mountain 5

Complexity

Chapter 2 The Long Ride Home 11

Chapter 3 A Blank Calendar 19

Chapter 4 27 Students, 20 Letters and a New Purpose 27

The Journey

Chapter 5 What it Means to be Happy 39

Chapter 6 Making Peace with the Past 49

Chapter 7 Facing the Future with Confidence 69

Chapter 8 Living in the Present with Joy 87

Chapter 9 All the Ways I Went Astray 129

Living on the Other Side of Complexity

Chapter 10 Simplicity on the Far Side of Complexity 141

Chapter 11 The Five Things 149

Chapter 12 The One Thing 153

Chapter 13 Call me Mr. Lucky 157

Epilogue 161

Appendix

Skills Summary 167

Editorial Reviews

2014-04-04
After his cancer diagnosis, a big company's CEO explains how he became a student and teacher of the practical skills of happiness. Smith describes happy people as being grounded in three things: remembering the past with peace, anticipating the future with confidence and living in the present with joy. He then identifies 13 specific skills, for which anyone can become proficient with practice, to create and support happiness, all of which are underpinned by love. The clarity and thoughtfulness that Smith brings to this book have been distilled through years of teaching a class on happiness at DePauw University, and he offers clear advice with quiet authenticity, grace and none of the distasteful aggressiveness that can be found in the methods of some self-help books. Smith's tools are simple but not simplified, aiming for, in the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, "simplicity on the other side of complexity." He neither turns his back on his corporate past nor insists on applying a CEO's toolset to a more mindful approach to life, making his words more broadly appealing. Smith tells his own life story, sharing the challenges and successes he found in articulating and manifesting the skills of happiness, and how he enriched his life by spending time alone in nature and with his wife and two sons. He shares his journey confronting the realities of his illness—chronic lymphocytic leukemia—while trying to nurture five thing in life: "grace, gratitude, courage, peace, and time," each with deep sincerity. Yet he doesn't infuse his own narrative with a much grander meaning, as can be common in books written by those who teach from their own lives. Instead, his well-articulated though not quite groundbreaking story helps by sharing one way to find personal joy by focusing on how we relate to ourselves and others. A big thinker turns his mind to the essence of his happiness in a memoir that's easy to read and maybe even follow.

Kirkus Reviews