How to be Miserable:
40 Strategies You Already Use
Published 2016
Many of our decisions throughout life are designed to make us happier, but only result in us becoming less satisfied. What if, for one brief moment, we considered what we might do if misery was the goal?
Perhaps we would discover that we are already doing many of the things that we know will only bring us unhappiness. And if we have found the road to misery, perhaps we have found the road to a better life as well: simply turn right rather than left.
This book uses the literatures on happiness, life satisfaction, and depression to identify simple strategies to downgrade - or upgrade - our existence. Read it and you may discover that much that you thought was out of your control is actually within your power to change.
Available as an e-book and in audiobook format.
“Randy J. Paterson’s How to Be Miserable contains practical, witty, and wise advice and is based on the premise that we have become our own worst enemies. Confronting our ‘management’ strategies consciously is the only way our life actually begins to turn toward better outcomes.”
- James Hollis, author of Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life
7 Ways to Maximize Misery.
Famed YouTuber CGP Grey created this video based on How to be Miserable, and it quickly garnered over 10 million views. Based on just 7 of the 40 strategies in the book, it gives a good sense of the ground covered.
The $10 Million Question.
A discussion of the key question from the book. If you could win $10 million by making yourself more unhappy with your life next week, how would you go about it? What strategies would you use? And…are you already doing those things?
“Randy J. Paterson has hit a home run with this highly accessible, engaging book. How to Be Miserable uses tongue-in-cheek humor, scientifically grounded practical advice, and a healthy dose of what is colloquially known as ‘reverse psychology’ to help put an end to common behavioral patterns that contribute to unhappiness. Anyone who wants to be less miserable should read this book and do the opposite of everything it recommends!”
—Martin M. Antony, PhD, ABPP, professor of psychology at Ryerson University in Toronto, ON, Canada, and coauthor of The Shyness and Social Anxiety Workbook and The Anti-Anxiety Workbook