For Happiness: the "Why" Is More Important than the "How"

04/19/10 Columbus, Ohio- According to author, speaker and humorist Dave Caperton, books about happiness tend to focus on the wrong question if they mean to produce a change in the reader. "Most happiness books center around either what happiness is, or how to create it step-by-step," says Caperton. "The real question to answer to help people to change is not 'what' or 'how' but 'why'?" In his new book, Happiness Is a Funny Thing (Alcus Media), Caperton uses humor to reinforce the why of happiness-producing habits.

Caperton says that, as with physical fitness and financial responsibility, people who are unhappy often know what to do and how to do it but that they must overcome inertia to change ingrained behaviors and so they tend to fail before they get started.  "Cynicism, fear, and anger are chosen responses to our experiences and when we establish a pattern of negativity, it takes a compelling reason to change our ways," he says.

In Happiness Is a Funny Thing, Caperton, a former stand-up comedian, comedy writer and self-described doodler (he also provides the book's cartoon illustrations) uses humor to make the case for why a personal change is needed to be happier. "Laughter is persuasive," he says. "When we laugh, we are emotionally engaged and in agreement, and that raises the chances that we'll take action." Laughter is also associated with joy, which Caperton hopes will be the long-term result for readers.

Caperton has been honing his message of humor and joy for 17 years as a speaker and seminar leader to top business, education and health care organizations all over North America on the power of compassionate humor to drive change and create individual and team success through personal perspective choices that improve service, innovation, learning and leadership.

"Happiness is no great mystery," he says.  "It is an outlook, a way of positively framing our experiences and explaining our lives to ourselves in ways that we believe we can control and it comes from a definite sense of purpose and self-worth. It is undermined by stress and fear and it is strengthened by faith, love and laughter."

Happiness Is a Funny Thing is a book that he says inspires laughter while providing compelling why-tos that can lead the reader toward real change and authentic joy.

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Contact info:            Dave Caperton     

Email: dave@davecaperton.com