At a moment when the world feels both abundant and unsettled, local author Richard E. Simmons III has written the book many of us didn’t know we were waiting for. Reflections on Happiness: In a Broken and Chaotic World arrives with the turning of the year and offers a message on mental and emotional well-being that outlasts any checklist.
Simmons spent decades in Birmingham’s business community before stepping into work that felt more like a calling: encouraging men through the harder passages of life. He went on to found the Center for Executive Leadership, a Birmingham-based nonprofit where he teaches and counsels men on wisdom, purpose, identity, and faith. His books—now more than a dozen—have reached hundreds of thousands of readers in Birmingham and beyond.
This newest volume appears at a time when something in our society has shifted. “There’s a real struggle with happiness today,” Simmons says. “People are more prosperous than ever, and yet mental and emotional health are plummeting.”
Depression, he adds, has risen tenfold since the 1960s. The World Health Organization now calls it the most widespread illness in the world. And while it affects everyone, Simmons has seen how often men remain silent. “So many think real men don’t get depressed,” he says. “So they hide it. And whenever you hide it, you suffer alone.”
For anyone struggling to find joy, Simmons suggests beginning with one small action: call a friend, step outside, take a walk through nature. Inertia is powerful, but motion and connection begin to loosen its grip.
Reflections on Happiness: In a Broken and Chaotic World offers insight into why happiness can be harder to find in a world that promises everything. Each chapter reads like a meaningful conversation. Simmons traces what he calls “true happiness,” the kind rooted not in fleeting pleasure but in relationships, character, meaningful work, purpose, and whole-person health. “Pleasure feels good for a moment,” he says, “but it doesn’t last. One of the keys to true happiness is learning to live wisely.”
In his view, living wisely begins with recognizing the God-woven principles that govern life. It asks us to consider how we spend our time and what we allow to shape us. And while modern life pressures us to acquire more—possessions, experiences, accomplishments—Simmons explains that none of those pursuits will ever deliver the satisfaction we expect.
Instead, it grows through purpose and through aligning our lives with biblical wisdom. When we choose what endures over what distracts, we discover that true happiness is closer than we thought.
Reflections on Happiness: In a Broken and Chaotic World is available on Amazon, at richardesimmons3.com, and locally at Seibels, Little Professor, and Church Street Coffee & Books.