Your Unfinished Life,  a new book by Lawrence J Danks,tells how we can be happier, increase self-esteem and find greater personal fulfillment through kindness and serving the needs of others. Considering President Obama's call for action to all Americans, Danks' book is a timely offering that provides a strong rationale for personal and community service and provides direction on how to help us do our part in making a difference. Its principles encompass the strongest traditions of service from many religions and from the best moral convictions of believers and non believers alike. He says we will not only make others happier by doing this, but will increase our own happiness as well.

The author indicates while it only seems sensible that happiness should center around us, it really centers on others. He cites examples such as really providing backup for others when they need it, turning grief into good, helping to keep a student in school, and unplanned leadership - when we can find ourselves aiding a cause we never expected to become involved with, due to an unexpected triggering event.

Similarly, he indicates that it is sometimes a great service to just give something away as Wilhelm Roentgen, the German physicist, did with the development of the x-ray or as Tim Berners-Lee did with the concepts of the internet. In one of the book's later chapters, forty different ways to be of service are suggested. Danks says each of us can easily develop more ways of our own, capitalizing on our own unique talents. When kindnesses and service are extended, Danks says it might allow us to gain the same surprising insight that Walt Whitman had: “I am larger, better than I thought. I did not know I held so much goodness.”

The writer notes that time is always limited, but that there is always time to make more of ourselves and to increase our own happiness and feelings of fulfillment in our endeavors. He notes that it is never too late to become who we might have been. But the author says we shouldn’t wait too long. He says we don’t want to be like the dying man who led a selfish life in the French film “The Barbarian Invasions” who said he wanted “to leave a mark, so I can die in peace”, but when it was far too late to do anything about it.

The author, a management, business law and international business professor in Southern New Jersey provides dozens of inspiring and motivational quotations from Marcus Aurelius, The Dalai Lama ,Mother Teresa,Wayne Dyer,Joel Osteen, George Foreman and many others.

"Kirkus Discoveries" has called Your Unfinished Life:   "A well-considered, compact guide to centuries of literature about kindness and happiness…Danks invites readers to contemplate the legacies and memories they will leave, sharing numerous passages and summaries from literature and self-help books that direct people to happiness through sharing and kindness."

Lawrence J. Danks is the author of Your Unfinished Life, a guide to finding happiness, success, improved self-esteem and personal fulfillment. It is available through  Amazon.com, Barnesand Noble.com, Baker and Taylor and other leading booksellers.