The Four Paths of Assertiveness: Speaking Up, Jumping In, Embracing Compassion, and Accepting Life

An engaging guide for cultivating assertiveness to live a happier life.

Confidence and decisiveness are critical life skills that many people struggle to develop. For readers who want to take charge of their lives, The Four Paths of Assertiveness provides an indispensable guide to developing and practicing this crucial ability. Youth advocate Scott Cooper and psychologist Naoki Yoshinaga, PhD, identify four categories of assertiveness--social, behavioral, emotional, and mental--and explain how to hone these skills to live a happier life and develop healthier relationships.

Cooper and Yoshinaga expand the definition of assertiveness to include the core elements of speaking up, jumping in, embracing compassion, and accepting life. Speaking up is critical for standing up for ourselves. Jumping in helps us achieve our goals. Embracing compassion supports us in responding to the universal challenge of suffering, including our own. And accepting life means coping with ups and downs. Each chapter focuses on how to practically develop these four aspects of assertiveness and features tools for how to apply these strategies in everyday life.

Grounded in decades of happiness studies and current trends in behavioral psychology, this guide teaches readers how to live intentionally while staying true to themselves and strengthening their relationships.

Scott Cooper is a national youth advocate and a former city youth commissioner and school board president in the state of California. He is the author of Speak Up and Get Along! and Sticks and Stones. Naoki Yoshinaga, PhD, is a researcher, a professor at the University of Miyazaki in Japan, and a practicing licensed psychologist.