What would it take to make you happy? A fulfilling career, a big bank account, or the perfect mate? What if it didn't take anything to make you happy? What if you could experience happiness from the inside out -- no matter what's going on in your life?

Studies show that each of us has a happiness set-point -- a fixed range of happiness we tend to return to throughout our life -- that's approximately 50 percent genetic and 50 percent learned. In the same way you'd crank up the thermostat to get comfortable on a chilly day, you can actually reprogram your happiness set-point to a higher level of peace and well-being. This life-changing program shows you how!

In Happy for No Reason, transformational expert and bestselling author Marci Shimoff reveals a remarkable program, incorporating the latest findings in positive psychology, moving real-life stories and powerful tools and techniques that will raise your happiness set-point and enable you to experience more unconditional happiness in your life -- starting today.

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.

Years ago, I taught a success seminar in which I asked the participants to each take a big sheet of heavy paper and write across the top "100 things to be, do, have." Then they made three long columns and began listing their dreams, big and small. When they shared their goals afterward, they were invariably all fired up: people wanted to go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, own a Mercedes SL600 Roadster (cream white, with titanium silver alloy wheels), dance at the White House, fly a small plane around the world. They wanted to rise to the top of their field, end world hunger, create world peace, be on the cover of Time magazine.

Somewhere on the be list a few people wrote "Be happy," but I was surprised at how often most people overlooked that. That's what the whole page was about, wasn't it? Didn't being, doing, and having all these things equal happiness?

Over time, I've come to look back on those lists as a great example of taking the long way around. Big and wonderful as those things are, they aren't the ultimate thing we all want. If you cut to the chase, what we really want is to be happy.

The truth is that happiness is so compelling, so attractive -- so irresistible -- that whether you realize it or not, everything you do is aimed at making yourself happy. Happiness has been called the holy grail of human existence, the be-all and end-all of life. Aristotle called it the goal of all goals.

Studies around the world show that when people are asked to rank what they want from life, they put the desire to be happy at the top of the list, more important than wealth, status, a good job, fame, and sex. This is true for people of all cultures, races, religions, ages, and lifestyles. And research also shows how vital happiness is: happy people live longer, are healthier, and have better relationships. In fact, happiness leads to more success in every area of your life.

Unfortunately, many people are not experiencing much sustained, authentic happiness. Consider these sad statistics:

Less than 30 percent of people report being deeply happy.

Twenty-five percent of Americans and 27 percent of Europeans claim they are depressed.

The World Health Organization predicts that by 2020, depression will be second only to heart disease in terms of the global burden of illness.

Although our lifestyles are better than ever, we're unhappier than ever. It seems the more gadgets and goods we gather, the worse we feel.

In this book, I'm not going to show you directly how to make more money, be more successful, or have better relationships. I leave that to my friends and colleagues in the transformational world who do that all so well. What I am going to do is tell you what I would most want to know. This book answers the question I've spent the past thirty-five years studying and researching, the one that is most important to me -- and that I believe is also most important to you: How can I be truly happy?

Although this question absorbed me for most of my life, for years I didn't have much luck answering it. In fact, I spent most of that time barking up the wrong tree.

One Unhappy CamperI had imagined it all as a child: I would grow up, live in a beautiful house, have a wonderful husband and a great career. My body would be perfect and my social life fun and exciting. I would be happy!

To live that life of my dreams, I knew I'd have to work hard to get all my ducks in a row. And although I was clear about...