Action For Happiness is a charity founded in 2010 and they proudly state that their patron is the Dalai Lama. According to their wiki page, they have over 270,000 members in 190 countries and they are all about actions that will lead to happiness. They wrote a book called 10 Key to Happier Living where they summarize the 10 pillars of happiness with an acronym calling it GREAT DREAM, which is an acronym that we will review shortly.
Overall, I gave this book an overall score of 6.5/10 mostly because of the reputation of Action For Happiness, but didn’t give it top score because I found information discussed in the book rather basic, so at least for me there was too little added value. Practically speaking, this means that I will add this book to my 38 best books on happiness, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to anyone except someone who is getting started searching for their happiness.
About Action For Happiness
First of all, Action For Happiness is a great company, as besides the 10 Key to Happier Living, they offer several activities and products such as:
- Monthly calendar – For every day of a month, Action For Happiness provides an actionable happiness advice, which are translated to many different languages and downloadable from their website
- Happiness event – On a regular basis Action For Happiness hosts events by interesting speakers, such as the following events I saw just now on their website:
- “Be Your Own Therapist” with Owen O’Kane, author of Ten Times Happier, How to Be Your Own Therapist, and Ten to Zen;
- “Happier Thinking” with Mo Gawdat, author of Solve For Happy; and
- The Happy Mind with Ismael Cala, who is also an interesting and accomplished speaker
- Social media presence – For sure Action For Happiness has a very good and engaged social media presence meaning that they get their message across, which is commendable.
Calendar for “Self Care September” 2023
Source: https://actionforhappiness.org/calendar
About Author of 10 Key to Happier Living: Vanessa King
Vanessa King is the author of 10 Key to Happier Living, a book by Action of Happiness. She is a British author, psychologist, and happiness expert. She is a senior lecturer in psychology at the Open University, a visiting senior fellow at King’s College London, and a co-founder of Action for Happiness. Her work focuses on better understanding happiness and how to help people cultivate greater wellbeing.
As a psychologist, Vanessa has conducted groundbreaking research in the area of positive psychology, particularly in the exploration of social norms and shared values. She has published extensively in this field, as well as delivering lectures and workshops in many countries throughout the world. She is the author of several books on happiness, including the best-selling Action for Happiness, which offers practical strategies to increase personal happiness. Vanessa’s work has been featured in publications such as The Guardian, The BBC, and The Telegraph, among others.
Vanessa is a passionate advocate for the power of happiness to improve our lives. She believes that everyone has the potential to be happy, and that we can all play a role in creating a happier world. She is committed to using her research, writing, and teaching to help people live happier, more fulfilling lives.
The 10 Key to Happier (aka Great Dream)
The GREAT DREAM is an acronym that stands for:
Giving – Support others
Relating – Interact with people
Exercising – Stay active
Awareness – Pay attention to your actions
Trying Out – Experiment and explore
Direction – Set objectives to accomplish
Resilience – Adapt to hardships
Emotions – Find happiness
Acceptance – Appreciate yourself
Meaning – Discover purpose in life
As it is often the case with acronyms, I felt like GREAT DREAM was a bit forced, such as it was with some letters like Acceptance and Trying Out, as by themselves these concepts are important, but they aren’t necessarily the pillars of happiness. Moreover, it was my personal opinion that 10 Key to Happier Living didn’t go in depth into all these concepts, although the presentation of the book was definitely 10 out 10, while the content was 5 out 10 only.
About 6.5/10 Book Review
As it is the case of all 38 book reviews on Optimal Happiness we based it on our unique 10 point scale which we created to compare different happiness books. In the case of 10 Key to Happier Living this book only scored 6.5/10 points, which is good, but not great, and here is how we calculated this score.
Is it the science and art of happiness? Yes (Qualified)
Happiness is found exclusively in God? No (Qualified)
Is this book written by a happiness author? Yes (1 point)
Is it random happiness advice? No (1 point)
Is it a comprehensive happiness formula? Maybe (0.5 points)
Is there a unique contribution? No (0 point)
Happiness is evasive? Unclear (0 point)
Does it answer the 4 key questions of happiness:
– What is happiness? Yes (1 point)
– Why happiness? Yes (1 point)
– How to be happier? Yes (1 point)
– How to be the happiest we can be? No (0 points)
Is it easy to read? Yes (1 point)
Total = 6.5
Overall, I believe this book is simple in its concepts, but well designed and presented. It would be a good read for someone who is just starting to read about the topic of happiness, but it isn’t one of the best recommended books, but it still made it into our 38 Best Books on Happiness. See how it does against other happiness books here.
