How To Be Happy #author Declan Edwards

 How To Be Happy: Stop Chasing Happiness, Learn the 5 Skills to Create It Instead

You don't have to search endlessly for happiness. 
You can practice it.

You've worked hard, achieved your goals, and followed the well-meaning advice. Yet that sense of deep fulfilment still feels just out of reach. But the problem was never you. It's that no one ever taught you that happiness is a skillset, not a destination.

Declan Edwards ― "That Happiness Guy" ― has spent over a decade coaching thousands of people through BU Happiness College, an award-winning program grounded in positive psychology research. How to Be Happy distills that coaching experience into five core skills that build lasting well-being from the inside out, one intentional choice at a time.

Understand your emotions and work with them instead of against them
Tune out the noise and reconnect with what truly matters to you
Train your brain to notice the good without ignoring life's challenges
Get clear on who you really are ― your values, your strengths and what makes you feel loved
Build a life with real direction, meaning and daily purpose
How to be Happy is for people who want real tools, not inspirational slogans. Complete with practical exercises, insightful case studies and research-backed strategies that meet you exactly where you are. Whether you're a growth-minded professional, an overwhelmed achiever or simply ready to feel more alive, now is the time to progress towards the happy and fulfilling life you deserve ― one skill and one step at a time.

To connect with Declan ....
https://declanedwards.com.au/
https://declanedwards.com.au/podcast/
https://www.instagram.com/declanedwards_bu/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/declan-edwards-bu-happiness-college 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Good morning, Declan Edwards. Welcome to Yellow Shelf.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Oh, it's my pleasure. Congratulations. You have been writing a book as well as running a business and all the other aspects to your life. You and I kind of have not officially met before, but we have lots in our networks. So this is really cool to make this happen and share your book. Congratulations. Tell us all about your book, How to Be Happy.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Yeah, I mean, this one's been four years in the making. I started writing the manuscript for this book four years ago, just off the back of COVID. Kind of going, you know, it seems like the world as a whole was wrestling with happiness and well-being and our approach to work and our approach to life and what it means to live a happy and rewarding life. And I remember at the time finding out that, you know, as all this was going on and life as we knew it was being disrupted, one of the most common uh there was a spike in Google searches for happiness. So people were like seeking happiness, I think more so than ever. And I went, oh, that's really interesting that in you know, a challenging time for humanity, we felt compelled to look for happiness and to play our part in happiness. And obviously, my background's as a happiness researcher. I've been running a social enterprise for nine years now, teaching happiness as a skill set and as a science. And I went, maybe, maybe it's time to put into book form. And off it went over four years of work. And now here it is, out in the real world, out in the wild.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Yay, congratulations, Declan. And I love the fact that you share that it was a four-year journey, a very considered approach to writing a book. Um, tell us, like officially first-time author published. Um, tell us about that journey. Tell us about your writing style. Were you like off to writers' retreats or blocking yourself out, blocking time out? What was your journey like over those four years?

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Oh, to be honest, I think part of the reason it took four years is because I went in way too ambitious at the start. Uh, at the college I run, we teach 75 distinct skills that are correlated with happiness. Which is a lot, right? Like there's there's everything from resilience, emotional intelligence, grit, knowing your strengths, habit change, like all these things that we know from the research make happiness more likely for people and for workplaces. Yeah. And I remember sitting down going, right, how do I condense 75 skills from a three-year curriculum that we have at the college into a book? And I quickly realized that would be the world's thickest and largest book if I kept going down that route. So my first publisher was to uh push back and say, can you get it to a top five? And that's what I ended up doing, is going, if there was only five, I think everyone needed to start with what are the five foundational skills that make happiness most likely. Like they give us the best foundations to build upon. And off I went, writing that. But then I went, you know what? I don't just want this to come from theory. I don't just want this to come from the research. I want this to come from the real-life conversations I've been able to have with people over the years through the college, but also people that I might otherwise never reach because I want to get this cross-cultural understanding of happiness. So off my wife and I went and we spent time in places like Korea, India, all through Latin America. We went kind of around the world asking people, what does happiness mean to you and how do you approach it? And over that time, I collected close to a hundred different interviews and then took you know three or four key ones to feature in the book and then build out from there. And and throughout that whole process, I foolishly thought, you know what, I'm gonna write this manuscript whilst we're traveling. I'm gonna do it whilst we're turns out not something that was gonna happen. And uh ended up, you know, through a series of changes. The original publisher I was looking at going with went in a different direction. They weren't publishing books on well being anymore. So I went, okay, I've written 80% of this manuscript. I now don't have a publisher, like, what am I gonna do? And very thankfully, over time, got introduced by many people recommending me to uh the great people at Wiley and formed a connection with them and a relationship with them. And they were like, this is the exact kind of book that we want to be bringing to the world, something that's evidence-based, it's practical, it's informative, and it actually helps people genuinely improve their happiness and well-being. Uh, we'd love to sign you on and go down that route. And even that was a whole learning, like the whole process of oh, like doing the the manuscript refinements and the editing and um and even the audiobook, you know, sitting in a little studio and the attention to detail of that. I remember on day one of recording the audiobook, the guy came over my headphones and goes, Jacqueline, I'm gonna stop you. You just said um to make a value-aligned decision, and in the manuscript it's actually values-aligned decisions, so you just missed the S on that. It's uh a plural. And I went, Well, this is gonna be a tough four days.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

No. Uh, thank you for sharing that journey because I think it's really interesting, isn't it? Like that putting a book together, needing to pivot when things don't go to plan as far as publishers or um your preconceived ideas about, hey, I'm gonna write this as I travel. Like it's just it, I'm fascinated often by uh the as much as I'm fascinated by the book, I'm also fascinated by the why and the inspiration and the journey of what it takes to be an author. Declan, do you want to tell us a bit about your BU Happiness College?

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Yeah, so I started that as a social enterprise nine years ago off this very simplistic idea of most of our education is focused on technical skills to help people be good employees. Which I think is very important. It's very, very important for the economy, it's important for life, it's important that we have good work and that we feel competent. You know, I often say, uh, you know, if I'm gonna go in for surgery, I do want my surgeon to have good technical skills. I don't want them to just be like, hey, I've got really high emotional intelligence. Like my soft skills through the roof. I'm like, that's good. I would also like to know that you can do surgery well before you cut me open. So I think it's important that we learn technical skills, but I think there's historically been a massive uh lack of formalized development of soft skills. And over the last 30, 40 years, we're talking about them a lot more. We're going, oh, things like empathy are really important, things like emotional intelligence are really important, things like resilience and adaptability are really important. But then where do you learn that? And if you're not learning that at school and you're not learning it in the workplace, if you weren't one of the lucky, lucky people who had really emotionally intelligent parents at home to teach you at home, then we're kind of all just stumbling our way blindly through life. And the more I learned about positive psychology and well-being science, I went, This is a really good toolkit that seems to help people live a happier life. But the problem is no one reads academic journals and articles. True, true. There needs to be a way of almost translating the research in the academic and like the stuff that's like, hey, this is what science is saying helps people live really meaningful, fulfilling happy lives, but translating into a way that people actually give a damn about. And I decided that's what I'd tried to do. And since then, we've now got members and graduates in six countries of the college. Um, we've just started democratizing what we do. I like to say I spent the first nine years of running the college. Uh, the the purpose was to share and teach the skills and science of happiness. I think the next 10 years is going to be dedicated to democratizing it. So, how do I make it as accessible as possible? Yeah, yeah. Like the podcast, the book, like free content. How do I make this so obnoxiously easy to access that people have no excuse to stop them from being able to prioritize their happiness and well-being? And in doing so, play their part in making the world a little bit happier because I can't do it on my own.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Yeah. And look, the book compliments your work, the work compliments the book. I mean, I think it's I think it's fabulous what you're doing. Um, Dylan, uh, Declan, would is it remiss of me to ask, would there be another book? I know, not just yet, but I guess that whole journey, like, did you really enjoy being an author? Was there yeah, what what do you think?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

I I did joke with the publisher that, you know, we've got the curricula of 75 skills, and we've covered five in depth in this one. So, this is how to be happy. Maybe the next one is how to be happier, then there's how to be happy. I think the next one, I've started plotting out a bit of an idea of doing one um uh basically how to be happy at work. You know, work is a huge part of our life. Um, this book is very much focused on the individual. What are things we can do in our own life that we take ownership and responsibility for to improve our happiness and well-being? But I think there's a whole range that I've been doing a lot of keynote speaking on, a lot of corporate programs on around what does it take to actually create thriving workplaces? Like we can't have a conversation about making the world happier without talking about making happier organizations because so much of our time is spent working. And that time is either a huge promoter of happiness in people or a massive detractor. And so I think as more organizations start to have these conversations around the employee experience and around being an employer of choice, there's more hunger for evidence-based in and in scientific informed approaches to here's how you can actually improve staff satisfaction, how here's how you can improve employee well-being and all these things whilst promoting performance and productivity and profitability. And so I think that'll be the next one. That'll be the maybe in another three to four years. I think I'm gonna do a three to four year side. You heard it here first.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

I'm gonna lock you in. I'm gonna lock you in for three to four years. Let's um, you're always welcome back, Declan. Wonderful work you do. I'm gonna put some links in the show notes, but you have a really fabulous website which can point you in any direction of where to follow. And um, but yeah, you tell us how you'd like people to connect with you and connect with the book.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

I think the the best way is uh I I run a podcast called How to Be Happy. So, same name as the book. And I've been finding that's a really good way for people to continue learning about this. So if you're a podcast person, I'm assuming you are, you're listening to this.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Um definitely tune into that as well. Uh obviously, book I say now it's at any good bookstore as well as at Booktopia and Amazon. If it's not your local bookstore, they're obviously not a good bookstore, so tell them to stock it. They'll be a good one, get their act together. Um, so you can obviously find How to Be Happy Anywhere there. And if you want to learn more about the college, then yeah, be youhappinesscollege.com is a great place to find out all about the courses and coaching and programs we run. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing with Yellow Shelf. I mean, enjoy this journey and be happy because I feel like it's such an accomplishment. It's uh a privilege to share your work with a wider audience. You know, if people aren't listening already to the podcast, dive into it. I'll put a link into in the show notes as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Yeah, no, definitely practicing what I preach. I'm taking a conscious week to really celebrate the book being out and just settle into this before rushing ahead to the next thing. And um, I appreciate the opportunity to talk about the importance of happiness in our life. I think it's something that definitely matters.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Pleasure. All the best. Cheers.