Beyond Happy: How to Rethink Happiness and Find Fulfilment

by Mark Fabian

'A brilliant read... a gamechanger' Paul Ross, Talk Sport

'Essential reading... Written with clarity, vivacity and depth' Manda Scott

A comprehensive guide to cultivating wellbeing, combining cutting edge science and primordial folk wisdom.

Beyond Happy explores how evolution has wired us to keep happiness just out of reach, leaving us perpetually stuck on a happiness treadmill. Instead of striving to escape it, the book argues, we should focus on making the treadmill a place we want to be. Finding this wellbeing begins with listening to our emotions, discovering intrinsic motivation and pursuing our authentic values. Fabian coaches you through this process of self-actualisation. Wellbeing, however, is not solely an individual pursuit – it is something we cultivate together.

Most profoundly, Beyond Happy shows the way out of nihilism – the pervasive sense that life on the treadmill is purposeless and incoherent. To escape this despair, we must develop a moral compass. To heal the toxicity of our acrimonious politics, we need to rediscover the joy of sharing and celebrating what we love.

Delivered with an entertaining mix of academic precision, a podcaster's knack for storytelling, and the down-to-earth panache Australians are known for, Beyond Happy is a one-stop shop to everything you need to know about the good life.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

349 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 10, 2025

Reviews

[Celine Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

a genuinely excellent self-help book for people who are primarily struggling with questions of meaning/service/commitment…this is less about achieving personal happiness/success, and more about finding some anchoring cause, source of meaning, vocation, etc that can undergird a life of generosity and other-oriented actions

[William F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book will make your life better

[Geraldene Callanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished reading Beyond Happy. Rather than tired advice about positive thinking and gratitude journals. Fabian offers an antidote to an ever-increasing sense of nihilism creeping into society today. He argues we should get off the happiness treadmill and instead go within to find our inner moral compass and intrinsic motivations to make our lives and the world something we want it to be. He guides readers through a very practical process of self-actualisation which can be found through learning to listen to emotions, discovering our motivations, and pursuing authentic values in shaping a life that “fits” who we really feel ourselves to be. And then consciously contributing in ways that co-create a life and world we want to live in.
What sets this book apart is the sheer breadth of ideas covering many disciplines where philosophy, psychology, theology, and real lived experience are all woven together into something genuinely practical. The concept of 'coalescence of being' — his model for self-actualisation — is worth the read alone.
One of the big takeaways is the idea that wellbeing isn't just a personal project. It's something we build together. And in a world that feels increasingly fractured, that message couldn't be more timely.
Highly recommended for anyone who's ever felt like they're chasing happiness but never quite catching it.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is different to mainstream self-improvement literature. Rather than focusing on markers of external success, Fabian recommends understanding your unending stream of desires and learning to enjoy being on the hedonic threadmill. He shys away away from proving bullet-pointed lists of improvements you should take and instead conceptualises happiness as an individual journey where one should look inward to one's values and use them to base actions of.

My only negatives were the latter chapters, which concerned broader cultural trends in 'meta-modernism'. As someone who's not online and doesn't watch TV/movies, these essays did not resonate with me.

[H A · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most insightful and practical wellbeing/self-help books I’ve come across, and very easy to read.