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Monday 15 February 2016

How to be Miserable, Take Three: 10 More Replies from Audiences

On May 1 of this year New Harbinger Publications will release my latest book, How to be Miserable: Forty Strategies You Already Use. In it, I invite readers to contemplate how they could reduce their happiness and life satisfaction if, for some reason, that was their goal.

Why bother? Most of us spend much of our lives trying to arrange things so that we feel happier and more contented with our lives - and often we feel stuck or frustrated. We never ask ourselves how we could feel worse. But doing so can illuminate a road that runs in both directions. By understanding how we could lower our mood, we can often see more clearly how to raise it.

Here are the answers from 10 more attendees at these talks. How do they compare with your own?

  • Set my expectations too high.
  • Beat myself down.
  • Try to change other people.

  • Be physically inactive.
  • Don't talk to anyone.
  • Get a job that starts at 7 am.

  • Work all the time; no play or stuff I love.
  • No exercise or time in my body or in nature.
  • No time with family and friends.

  • Eat high cholesterol food.
  • Stay indoors too much.
  • Do not participate in your own life; do not listen to your own desires.

  • Do nothing but eat and sleep with as little activity as is humanly possible.
  • Complete isolation.
  • Watch a Canucks game.

  • Cut off my whole 12 step recovery support group.
  • Stop taking my depression meds.
  • Take myself more seriously.

  • Break someone's heart.
  • Cut off my access to nature.
  • Cut my sleeping time in half.

  • Spend more time on the Internet (browsing mindlessly).
  • Spend less quality time with close people.
  • Do not be open to learn new things.

  • Be in a circle of unhappy people.
  • Do not get what I aimed for in any mission or step taken.
  • Become unable to move ahead with my goals.

  • Get more hours of work.
  • Drop all activities.
  • Waste time on the Internet and television.


What about you? If you could change only three things in the quest for unhappiness, what would YOU do?

How to be Miserable is available for pre-order from Amazon and other online booksellers now.