Congratulations. You're a human. Apparently, there's room for improvement.
According to the self-help industry, there's a better version of you just waiting to emerge. This person exercises regularly, eats sensibly, maintains meaningful relationships, keeps an organized home, and somehow remembers where the car keys are.
Wouldn't it be nice to meet that person?
Psychologist and storyteller Erick J. Lauber, Ph.D., has spent years trying to become a better version of himself. He's purchased expensive exercise equipment, experimented with healthier eating, attempted to develop good habits, and occasionally made a genuine improvement.
He's also spent $150 on a diet PDF, discovered that buying a Peloton doesn't necessarily mean riding it, and convinced himself that sprinkling peanuts on frozen yogurt constitutes responsible nutrition.
His wife, Betsy, has opinions.
In The Basically Fine Human, Lauber takes readers on a funny, surprisingly thoughtful journey through the ordinary challenges of being a reasonably functional adult. Drawing on personal misadventures, psychological research, and a lifetime of observing human behavior-including his own-he explores why making positive changes can be so difficult and why we often make the process harder than it needs to be.
Along the way, he tackles habits, health, relationships, clutter, motivation, aging, and the peculiar human tendency to turn even enjoyable activities into things we're supposed to accomplish.
What if improving your life doesn't require reinventing yourself?
What if you could make things a little better without developing an entirely new personality, following a complicated system, or feeling guilty every time you drift away from a good habit?
And what if you could laugh at yourself along the way?
This isn't another book promising to transform your life in thirty days. There are no elaborate morning routines, impossible standards, or demands that you become the best version of yourself before breakfast.
Instead, Lauber offers something more useful: entertaining stories, practical psychological insights, and permission to make small, worthwhile improvements while remaining the imperfect, occasionally ridiculous person you already are.
Funny, warm, and refreshingly down-to-earth, The Basically Fine Human is for anyone who has ever tried to improve themselves, gotten distracted, and wondered whether all this self-improvement might be getting a little out of hand.
You can have a better life without becoming a completely different person.
After all, you're probably basically fine.
