The Happiness Project

Alex Shalman has put together The Happiness Project. He interviewed numerous notable bloggers and asked them the same questions. He's posting one or two interviews each day during February and you can see the interviews here.

He's also put the questions out to other bloggers to write their responses on their blogs, so here I am.

The Questions

How do you define happiness?

For me, happiness is when I'm in a good mood, got a smile on my face, feel calm, relaxed and generally feeling good. I don't have to be bouncing off the walls deleriously giddy, although that can be fun at times.


On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your happiness now, versus when you were a child?

I'd say my happiness now is about the same as when I was a child, an 8. Although I've had times in my adult life when my happiness peaked at 10, it has also been significantly lower, say 4,3 or 2, today, I'm happy.

What is making my life happy now, is that I can see clearly my goals and objectives and I know I'm making progress. That's the key, making progress. It's the journey I enjoy.

What do you do on a daily basis that brings you happiness? (and how consistent is the feeling of happiness throughout your day)

I remember to be happy.

I work in a call center doing technical support for a major cable company and it can be easy to take on customer's problems or to accept their complaining personally. That is a major energy drain. Fortunately, I've learned to pay attention to my internal thoughts and feelings and practice choosing to be happy.

The consistancy is definately improving. The more I practice the techniques and tips I learn, the more effective they become. I terms of Law of Attraction, "like attracts like". The Observation Cycle: The more I think about being happy, the more I feel happy, the more I feel happy, the more I see happy things, the more I feel happy, etc.


What things take away from your happiness? What can be done to lessen their impact or remove them from your life?

Well, I'm alergic to negative people. :) I walk away. I avoid them. I think happier thoughts. I let their complaining roll off me. I email them instead of talk in person or on the phone with them.


What do you plan on doing in the future that will bring you even more happiness?

Pretty much doing what I'm doing now. By seeing what has improved in the short time I've taking on learning about happiness, and the improvement in my life, I can only keep learning more about happiness and practice what I've learned. See The Observation Cycle.


Leave a comment and tell me: What makes you happy?