You may have seen claims about how a book can improve your life. Thousands of people have provided supportive evidence for this book. It gives both clear how to information and evidence for its ideas. Even if you have a history of unhappiness or depression, or are facing difficult circumstances, you can learn to be happier. For those doubting they can affect their emotions, it provides strong contrary evidence. The factors Dr. Stevens’ research identified are specific learnable beliefs and skills--not general, heritable traits. Each chapter teaches some factors about how to be happy and successful. The book is for people who value growth and self-development to become happier and healthier. Perhaps you want to improve self-esteem, positive thinking, assertiveness, autonomy, motivation, emotional control, relationships, self-control, or achievement. Chapters deal with these issues and more, but also deal with core issues underlying these problems. This book is for people who are serious about being happy. No matter how difficult your past history or current circumstances, striking insights into the causes of emotions can empower you to rise above negative emotions, and you can choose to be happy. Dr. Stevens combines expertise of 31 years as a psychologist with a philosophical-spiritual approach and his personal experience to make this an important book about achieving happiness. His research provides crucial, detailed support for these ideas not found in most self-help books. Yet, his clinical and personal experience helps him provide practical, detailed self-help advice. Well-known author and PBS speaker, Dr. Wayne Dyer wrote that this book is, “A thorough presentation, rich in detail, yet very reader friendly. I enthusiastically endorse Tom Stevens’ book and recommend it as a powerful tool for human development.”
Dr. Stevens developed questionnaires on life skills and intimate relationships that tested many ideas later presented in this book. What he learned about happiness was the basis for his own happy marriage and life. It gave him new approaches to therapy that greatly enhanced his ability to help others. The first edition was a result of his 40-year experiment. Readers said:
* “I have found your book to be such an inspiration to me.”
* “It’s packed with insightful knowledge and expertise.”
* ”All the personal experiences and skills I learned will stay with me forever.”
* “I’m a self-help book ‘junkie’–I’ve read them all; and this is the best self-help book I’ve ever read.”
* "The book is a terrific combination of scholarship, superb information, and spirituality."
* 100% of a reader test group said they would recommend the book to a friend--40% already had. They rated the book an average of 8.23 of a possible 9.0 on “overall usefulness of the book.”
After writing the first edition, Dr. Stevens wanted even more proof that this book was valid, so he developed the free, online questionnaire, SHAQ (The Success and Happiness Attributes Questionnaire), by going through each chapter, taking each main idea, and turning it into questions. He correlated these questions (and related scales) with over 3400 SHAQ users’ emotional and life success measures. SHAQ scales correlated with Happiness, .87; with Low Depression, .73; with Low Anxiety, .68; with Low Anger-Aggression, .70; with Relationship Success, .70; and with good results for career success measures. Correlations this high are rarely found in this type of research. We’re unaware of any self-help book that has ever tested its ideas so extensively. These dramatic results impelled Dr. Stevens to revise this book and include his research and new sections. The comprehensiveness and level of detail of the values, beliefs, and skills suggested and tested can be used by individuals, by instructors, or by clinicians seeking both theoretical understanding and specific therapeutic suggestions for many issues
Dr. Stevens developed questionnaires on life skills and intimate relationships that tested many ideas later presented in this book. What he learned about happiness was the basis for his own happy marriage and life. It gave him new approaches to therapy that greatly enhanced his ability to help others. The first edition was a result of his 40-year experiment. Readers said:
* “I have found your book to be such an inspiration to me.”
* “It’s packed with insightful knowledge and expertise.”
* ”All the personal experiences and skills I learned will stay with me forever.”
* “I’m a self-help book ‘junkie’–I’ve read them all; and this is the best self-help book I’ve ever read.”
* "The book is a terrific combination of scholarship, superb information, and spirituality."
* 100% of a reader test group said they would recommend the book to a friend--40% already had. They rated the book an average of 8.23 of a possible 9.0 on “overall usefulness of the book.”
After writing the first edition, Dr. Stevens wanted even more proof that this book was valid, so he developed the free, online questionnaire, SHAQ (The Success and Happiness Attributes Questionnaire), by going through each chapter, taking each main idea, and turning it into questions. He correlated these questions (and related scales) with over 3400 SHAQ users’ emotional and life success measures. SHAQ scales correlated with Happiness, .87; with Low Depression, .73; with Low Anxiety, .68; with Low Anger-Aggression, .70; with Relationship Success, .70; and with good results for career success measures. Correlations this high are rarely found in this type of research. We’re unaware of any self-help book that has ever tested its ideas so extensively. These dramatic results impelled Dr. Stevens to revise this book and include his research and new sections. The comprehensiveness and level of detail of the values, beliefs, and skills suggested and tested can be used by individuals, by instructors, or by clinicians seeking both theoretical understanding and specific therapeutic suggestions for many issues
