IF I WERE SITTING DOWN to read this book for the first time, my question would be: “What will I gain by reading this book?”

The answer is: You will gain a large number of ideas you can apply — practical ideas that will help you make your circumstances better. And you will get those ideas separately: Each chapter is independent from the others and can be read in any order. And the ideas are served up in bite-size, easily digestible chunks.

This book covers a broad spectrum of feelings and situations, so at any given time and for any given circumstance, you could profitably look in here and find something useful — some principle you could apply that would improve your situation or your attitude toward it.

The main thing you’ll get from this book is a collection of methods you can use to direct your actions more effectively. For example, if you try to vent when you’re angry so you don’t “hold it inside,” you’ll find out on page 250 that venting doesn’t work — and why. And you’ll find out what does work. The ideas in this book will help you direct your actions so that the things you want to happen will be more likely to happen.

Self-Help Stuff That Works is a collection of articles I wrote, mostly for my column Adam Khan on Positive Living in the newsletter At Your Best, published by Rodale Press. When I decided to compile them into a book, they naturally arranged themselves into three categories: attitude, work, and relationships. There were some odd exceptions — a few articles on how to make changes in general — and I added one or two to each section to help you translate the ideas into real improvement in the quality of your life.

Are you ready? Okay, but we have one more thing to cover: How to get the most out of this book — the subject of the next chapter.