The Courage to be Happy: True Contentment Is In Your Power (Courage To series)

This is the second book in the Courage To series advocating Alfred Adler’s teachings. The core message remains the same: you are not defined solely by your past; you have to find a purpose and act in order to move forward. You are the change you want to see, and you need to work on it.

The second book takes on the theme of education. A once-dissatisfied librarian, the student decides to become an educator. He believes in Adler’s philosophy, as he sees it has brought him considerable peace, and he tries to implement it in his classroom.

The core idea is letting students unfold at their own pace, without admiration or rebuke. However, this is not working for him, and he becomes very frustrated. He feels that the whole Adlerian philosophy sounds good on paper but cannot be practiced. Once again, he approaches his teacher, who discusses the philosophy with him.

One important message is the idea of teaching children to be self-reliant—allowing them to make mistakes and discussing those mistakes with them. Education should be about helping individuals become self reliant. The latter part of the book, about the message of love and related themes, got a bit too flowery for my taste. However, the overall message of the book is beautiful. Adler’s philosophy is logical. Unlike Freudianism, it offers a next plan of action: what next, what now. The edges of the triangle we usually focus on are “bad things happened to me” and “poor me,” but there is a third side: what next? And this is the most important message of all.

The book is well written and has a lot of good pointers. I do recommend reading it.

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