A self-help playbook that encourages daily practice with approachable, optimistic guidance
Author Karin Kiser is no stranger to the self-help genre, and her experience is evident in her newest offering, Happiness Unleashed: Your 90-Day Playbook for a Life of Meaning and Happiness that Lasts, where she emphasizes a daily practice of “mood boosters” and “pattern busters” over instant gratification. The result is an approachable primer full of time-tested fundamentals aimed at producing changes that stick.
“Forget about the how, as there are a million possible paths. Focus on your why and the path becomes clear.”
Kiser moves the lens away from how to be happy and asks the reader to consider why you, specifically, want to be happy. This alone makes Happiness Unleashed a great starting place for those feeling stuck or downtrodden, as Kiser’s goal is to empower her reader. She begins by challenging the idea that simply deciding to be happy is enough.
“What’s missing from the popular approaches to happiness is the stuff we have inside of us that is interfering with it.”
By acknowledging internal blocks like self-limiting beliefs, childhood conditioning and mental chatter, Kiser creates a framework that prioritizes internal change. The work that Kiser proposes in Happiness Unleashed is a deep dive into unconscious thought patterns and habits. It’s a potentially intimidating prospect, but she guides the reader toward new habits, bit by bit and day by day, slowly developing a mindset that generates lasting happiness.
Kiser calls Happiness Unleashed a “playbook,” not a “workbook,” and the distinction is important. By “playbook” she doesn’t mean a collection of strategies but a literal book of play and experimentation.
According to Kiser, happiness is a practice. It takes continued willingness to “upgrade your beliefs and choose happiness with each thought and action”—a process that’s easier to stick when it’s fun. By emphasizing play, Kiser takes the pressure off and makes it easier to engage the practice daily.
Setting a 90-day goal likewise gives the reader a forgiving timeline. At the end, she even notes that some people need more than 90 days, and that’s okay. Her goal is to leave the reader with plenty of techniques to “play with until the desired change sticks.”
“For change to be lasting or permanent, you need repetition and consistent practice. The neural pathways in the brain are set by repetition.”
Kiser’s tools may not break new ground exactly, but they have proven track-records, like intention-setting over goalkeeping, gratitude, and gentle introspection. I especially liked that Kiser uses the framework of daily practice to help the reader create a toolbox of personalized resources for later, like making a list of 50 things that you like, with the caveat that they must be active, like playing basketball rather than passively watching a game.
The next day, she asks the reader to make a list of ten things that they don’t like and have them ask themselves if they can drop or delegate any of those items. Unfortunately, while certainly useful, this exercise exemplifies one of the quiet problems in Happiness Unleashed—the author’s unspoken assumption that the reader can enjoy a certain amount of situational flexibility. Not everyone does. Certain changes may be financially or physically inaccessible. I would love to have seen a bit more on how to cultivate happiness within such circumstances. The same could be said of the “power hour” (time to journal, stretch, walk or do yoga) that Kiser encourages the reader to do first thing in the morning. Again, it’s a great idea, but not universally accessible for folks with kids or rigid schedules. Kiser is right in that happiness is an ongoing choice, but the degree of choice available can vary greatly from person to person.
That said, Happiness Unleashed is a lovely contribution to the self-help genre. I especially appreciated its playfulness and easy-going, bite-sized structure. By embracing a spirit of play and repetition, entrenched beliefs become opportunities for change and growth. It’s true: lasting happiness is the result of slowly and gently shifting your frame of mind. That’s the gold in Happiness Unleashed.
What did you think?