How To Create Happiness

Advice for readers on how to create happiness in their lives is a major point of The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck and makes up a central part of the book's takeaway. To do so, Manson first subverts the conventional contemporary understanding of happiness so often purported by traditional self-help resources. This conventional model emphasizes constant happiness and positivity--which is in itself impossible--and denies the value of pain, suffering, and failure in contributing to happiness. Furthermore, this ideology defines happiness as a problem to be solved and as something which is bestowed upon the individual after he or she achieves a desired goal. Manson subverts this entire understanding of happiness and presents an alternate model.

Manson argues that happiness is not bestowed, passive, or goal-oriented. Instead, it is active, process-oriented, and controllable. Manson believes that happiness comes from action and problem-solving. Problem-solving...