Bruce Feiler's new book, "Secrets Of Happy Families," aims to fill the gap between everyday life and outdated self-help, guide books.

Bruce Feiler and his family were having trouble managing their chaotic family life. He and his wife Linda had twin daughters and every morning was a challenge getting everyone bathed, dressed, fed and out of the house in time for school and work. Hence, Feiler decided to take help from self-help and guide books. However, after going through many such books he found them to be outdated and impractical in the current day family scenario.

Feiler decided to compile his own guide book gathering relevant information and advice from people from every sphere of life. He visited software engineering teams, sports coaches, business branding experts, military leaders, and even the team behind Modern Family.  Finally after years of collecting information, Feiler was ready to compile his book that now contained 200 individual strategies on how to make a chaotic family life more smooth flowing.

Feiler clarifies that while it is impractical for a family to try all 200 strategies, he is sure that every family can adopt at least a few from the book.

Feiler says that his family first began this process with weekly family gatherings. While Linda was apprehensive about the idea at first, she finally gave in. Feiler says that his two daughters really enjoy it and look forward to it every week. He says that it has now become a family tradition to let his daughters chose their own punishments and rewards. According to Feiler, this prepares them for taking and making more important decisions later in life.

Feiler also says that the family now has a mission statement that they came up with over a pajama party. The statement reads, "May our first word be adventure and last word be love." They have these words and 10 other sentences framed and put up in their house.