"I have never met a person whose goal was to ruin his or her life. We all want to be happy, and we want it all of the time."

So begins James Bryan Smith in The Good and Beautiful life.

The problem is, he tells us, we have bought into false notions of happiness and success. These self-centered decisions lead us further into the vices that cause ruin: anger, lust, lying, worry and judging. Eventually we find ourselves living a beautifully packaged life of self-destruction.