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The Courage to Be Happy

True Contentment is Within Your Power

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The Courage to Be Happy

By: Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga
Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm, Noah Galvin, January LaVoy
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The sequel to the mega-selling international phenomenon, The Courage to be Disliked.

This book is a compass.
Navigate and discover
along your path
the courage to be happy.

The Courage to be Happy presents profound insights into living life courageously and finding happiness along the way. It has already sold more than a million copies in Japan and is a sequel to The Courage to be Disliked, which has changed lives across the globe as an international bestselling sensation.

As in The Courage to be Disliked, we follow a Socratic dialogue between a philosopher and a young man. The philosopher believes that the key to a life of happiness and fulfilment is offered to us by the theories of Alfred Adler, a forgotten giant of 19th century psychology who has long been overshadowed by his two contemporaries, Freud and Jung. The young man is full of doubt that life can be genuinely improved by simply changing his thinking. Patiently, the philosopher explains the essence of Adler's 'psychology of courage', taking the young man through the mental steps necessary to achieve it, and demonstrating to the young man and to us the changes this psychology will bring to the way we live our lives.

This is a work that is truly life-changing in its power and universally applicable in its scope. Personal Development Personal Success Philosophy Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships Happiness Inspiring Thought-Provoking
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There are two main characters in this book. The teacher who has very interesting voice and explain Adlerian concepts in an easy to understand way, then there’s the student who is arrogant and has a very annoying tone which put me off listening after 3hrs. I’m going to buy the other book which is not structured this way.

Annoying student

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That's one of the very good questions this book nudges you to ask yourself.
Took a star away because of the young actor's performance, as many others mentioned here.

You want it easy or you want to be happy?

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Bringing Great Insights to a practical light through an engrossing dialogue. Bringing the work of Adler (and to a lesser extent Froh) to the world is a great gift. Some of the acting of the student could have been a bit more nuanced but overall great and powerful.

Outstanding Work bringing Great Insights

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a must read after the original the courage to be disliked, which builds on the understanding of early child dependency and desire for control.

self sufficiency

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Having read The Courage To Be Disliked, I was thoroughly looking forward to reading this sequel. Although I didn't know where it would go as the first book had been such a comprehensive discussion on Adlerian themes. The content of this book is again very interesting and works further to elucidate the more controversial of Adlers ideas such a not praising or rebuking actions amongst others. For this it was an excellent book and very thought provoking.

However, one enormous downside, was the narration. They seemingly had more money for production this time round and well, "jumped the shark". The narrator for the philosopher was excellent, the lady introducing the chapters was unnecessary but unremarkable and therefore tolerable. Yet, the voice actor for the young man/apprentice was just intolerable and ridiculous. I found his poor voice acting was seriously detracting from my enjoyment of the book. To the point I had to stop for several weeks half way through and go back to it as he was so grating. The young mans character issues some ridiculous ridicules and absurd abuse towards the philosopher, which I found trite and all the more incongruous due to the theatrical style if the younger voice actor.
All in, if you don't mind pantomime quality voice acting I would say forge on with the audiobook. If you are sensitive to the quality of the narration and find excessive AmDram style theatrics irritating. I would still definitely recommend this book, however in print / ebook version.

Fascinating concepts discussed, but . .

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