Turia Pitt - Happy (and other ridiculous aspirations)

Whats the greatest quest of humanity?
No, its not the Knights Templar, or life on Mars, or the perfect pair of jeans.
I suspect that the number one thing were searching for is... happiness.
Why do I suspect that?
Because thousands of people have told me.
So, I set out on a dragon-free quest to prove if happy is, actually, an attainable goal, and not just a ridiculous aspiration.

In this book, with her characteristic humour and gutsy intelligence,* Turia Pitt goes on a quest to answer the question, Is it possible to be happier?

What does she discover on her journey? Well, look, thats why we want you to buy the book, but we can tell you that it entails, among other things, practising gratitude, working on kindness, strengthening your relationships and accepting the hard times and down days.

Turia unpacks all of the above with easy-to-implement tips and strategies, hilarious insights into her own life and relationships, and introduces us to some of the worlds most interesting people along the way.

* She made us say that.

When I was first asked by my publishers to write this book, I screamed to them in my best Jerry Maguire voice: Show me the money!

Then I felt weird and embarrassed because no one laughed. Anyway, I signed on the dotted line, and promptly forgot all about any book and carried on with my life, which mostly involves me fawning over images of myself dressed up in front of a wind machine.

I got a few friendly reminders from my publishers one even threatening legal action unless I showed them I was doing something, which gave me the kind of heart palpitations you get when youre really scared because youve definitely over-committed and why, oh why did you tell everyone you liked writing about confidence and happiness?

Yes, indeed, I had a lot of self-doubt when I was writing this book (and thinking about this book, and researching for this book, and dreaming about this book). Why? Well, hasnt everything on happiness already been... done? The subjects been studied for thousands of years. There are more than thirteen billion search results when you type happy in to Google. Im not a scholar or a psychologist; the only academic qualifications I have are for mining engineering (so if ya need any rock excavations...). I felt at times as though I didnt have value or insight to add to the conversation and I didnt feel like a real writer.

When I envisage a real writer, I think of a crazed intellectual staying up till three in the morning, with a bottle of whisky on their desk (a desk plastered with reams of paper and ancient texts and original works by Voltaire and Oscar Wilde) frantically scribbling down their thoughts with a quill, creative genius gushing from their mind until they burst forth into their publishers office on the day of the deadline, slap the manuscript down on the publishers desk and light a cigar, inside.

That wasnt me.

I worked out how long it would take me to write each chapter. Then I created a Gantt chart that ensured I had ample time to incorporate revisions and feedback. Then I downloaded all sorts of useful software, colour-coded to my hearts content, and then... realised I still actually had to do the writing. And I was getting paid so I had to deliver, yknow?

So, with no organising left to procrastinate with, I started to write. And these words youre reading right now? Well, they were written for you. Not in a creepy, staring at you through a window in the dead of night kind of way. But you were on my mind as I wrote. Late at night, and early in the morning, bleary-eyed and over-caffeinated. I gave you a lot of thought. Because I wanted this book to genuinely speak to you.

But, of course, it was written without knowing the intricacies and idiosyncrasies that make you, YOU. Because you are special. Theres never been and is no one else on the planet who has your life circumstances, your personality, your upbringing and your hair. That makes you unique, and it also makes it very hard to write a personalised book just for you. So this book is mainly about me (haha!). Okay, not about me, but about what I believe to be true about happiness.

This is my take, my spin on it, having been through something pretty hectic, rebuilt my life from the ground up and, in the process, done some really cool shit.

Now, I dont know your exact personal circumstances: you may have experienced something extremely traumatic, you may be going through something distressing right now (and if this is you, please make sure youre getting some professional support: there are some awesome services listed in the Resources section).

You may have a different belief system to me, or a different moral compass, or you might just think differently to me. This book was written from my perspective and my perspective is that of a straight woman in a long-term relationship, whos had a good upbringing in a largely white, small coastal town. And while Ive travelled, and tried to educate myself on a wider set of perspectives, of course mine has been skewed by my personal circumstances. So, as with anything that you read (my books included), take what works for you, and leave the rest.

Ive tried not to rely on conventional wisdom about happiness, and since being a smartarse is my default state, Ive found that pretty easy. Ive also tried hard to use evidence-based theories, and when I couldnt find any that were satisfactory, I just got drunk with my friends and asked them. Joking! I made them up.

Some of the strategies I share are easy to master (to boost your happiness, literally all you need to do is hug someone). Some of them, are, um, a bit more challenging (to boost your happiness, you must have a purpose in life. Righto, then).

Enjoy these words. I enjoyed writing them for you!

Lots of love,

Turia

I wrote most of this book in 2019, while I was pregnant with my second son. Id set out to discover whether happiness was an aspiration worth pursuing. See, for almost a decade, people have asked me a lot of questions about happiness. Thousands of emails, hundreds of questions. People wanting to know how I was so goddamn happy, damn it, and how they could get some of it too.

What they were really asking was: how can you survive a grassfire, suffer burns to 65 per cent of your body, have your life and appearance fundamentally changed, and still, um, be happy? And how could they get through their fucked-up divorce/cancer diagnosis/crippling self-doubt, and be happy as well?