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The Mirage Of Happiness: Why Joy Keeps Slipping Away
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jul 2 2026
Pages: 116
Weight: 0.36
Height: 0.24 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
When I get the promotion, I'll be happy. Once I find the right person, everything will fall into place. As soon as I have enough money, I can finally relax.
Most of us have thought something like this at one time or another. We attach happiness to a future achievement, relationship, or change in circumstances, believing that once we get there, life will finally feel the way we want it to. Yet when we reach those milestones, the satisfaction often falls short of what we imagined.
In The Mirage of Happiness, writer and philosopher Pema Dorje examines why we keep expecting lasting happiness from things that may only satisfy us temporarily. Drawing on psychology, neuroscience, ancient philosophy, and his own experience of profound personal loss, he explores how our ideas about success, fulfilment, and contentment can shape the way we live-and leave us dissatisfied even when life appears to be going well.
From the hedonic treadmill and the arrival fallacy to the influence of social media on our desires, this book examines why achievements do not always bring the fulfilment we expect, why pursuing happiness can sometimes make it harder to find, and how we learn to measure our lives against standards that may never have been our own. Through the ideas of Epicurus, the Buddha, Viktor Frankl, and other thinkers, Dorje considers what lasting contentment might look like beyond the pursuit of more.
This is not a book of morning routines or quick fixes. It is an exploration of the expectations we inherit, the goals we pursue, and the difference between building a life that looks successful and living one that feels meaningful to us.
The mirage is not happiness itself, but the belief that it is waiting somewhere in the future, just beyond the next achievement. Understanding that distinction may change how you approach the life you are living now.
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