How to be Happy Though Human by W. Beran Wolfe

Okay. I admit it. I have read many, many, many self-help books.

Around age 28 or so I realized I had some "issues"  as a friend placed her therapists' business card in my hand.  It took me a while to call the therapist, but I did seek out help in books.

Back in the 1980's the whole self-help book industry was just getting going. Which is right around the time I realized that I might want to go on a quest to find myself. In other words opportunity was knocking for the newly-minted gurus of personal greatness just waiting to share their experience and wisdom. I was an eager audience seeking enlightenment.  And in order to buy a book you had to actually go to a bookstore.  No internet, no Amazon.

The first "self-help" book I ever read was actually published in 1931 in New York.   How to be Happy Though Human an out of print title that sells today for around $90.00 and up if you can find it. I have a copy on my bookshelf and I am not telling you where I live.

At the time I was a temporary administrative assistant at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets in the newly completed World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan right across from the World Trade Center, I occupied myself during my downtime with outlining  How to be Happy Though Human, onto 5x7 index cards with many colored felt-tip pens. Here is an example of two cards in the deck I created.

I made myself flash cards while answering the phones.

Here's the thing about self-help books is they help you more if you:

1. Read the book.
2. Take notes.
3. Put the ideas into action.

This is a quote...

"If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert.  He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator.  He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself.  He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day."  ~W. Beran Wolfe

Thank you, Mr. Wolfe.