Alex Shalman runs a cool big blog called Practical Personal Development. All of 23, he believes that "life is yours to dream up, design, create, and to do with as you please. Your only limits are internal--those that you put on yourself." I say "HO" to that, and I know he means it because I met him at SOBCon, the Biz School for Bloggers unconference, last spring in Chicago.

It only stands to reason that he'd dream up something like the Happiness Project--a group writing project in which participants answer five questions about happiness from your perspective. He's even offering prizes and incentives for every one who participates. 

Here's my entry--now go visit Alex's blog get busy on yours! 

How do you define happiness?

In my mind I have a picture of myself at age 10. I’m on the beach in a red striped bikini, soaking wet with my hair sticking out in every direction and sand in my pants and my arms outstretched to the sky. I had just been body surfing, and the surf was immense. A huge wave had churned and pounced, and pummeled me to the ocean floor. I came up gasping for air, shocked, and ecstatic. I was completely alive and couldn’t be happier.
 
And then the rest of life happened, and happiness moved from my body to my mind, where it took up residence as something “relative.” Happy. Not happy. Curious, that, isn’t it? 

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

Today, happiness is a conscious choosing. Being present to all that life is. Sadness is not the absence of happiness; joy is not the absence of pain. It’s the act of choosing—making choices that sync up my values with my vision—that give me my life. From this perspective, I will always be 10 years old, and happiness will always be a 10, because I still go to the beach to body surf in the hopes that I’ll get pounced by a big wave. Literally and metaphorically. 

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

Coaching people into their livelihoods brings me intense joy. Transformation is so contagious, isn’t it?  And then my list widens and gets raucous. Being in my body, moving, hiking, dancing. Laughing. Singing off key. Being with people. Talking. Brainstorming. Spinning out a really fine idea and putting it into action. Words. Stacking words up one after another until they form perfectly solid sentences. Ooh, that’s like chocolate. And, yes, did I mention chocolate? 

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

When I forget that I am responsible for everything in my life and I get attached to a particular feeling or pain. Then, happiness starts walking away like a puppy with his tail between his legs. We can shame ourselves out of happiness, can’t we? What brings it back is not by removing or avoiding the obstacles, but in choosing my reactions, choosing how I want to be with a difficult circumstance or person. I am ALWAYS 100 percent responsible – even when I’m not. 

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

Change the world, one conversation at a time.
Love my family.
Raise my son with integrity and fierce love and courage.
Roll in the grass.
Jump up and down on the bed.
Take care of elephants and mountain gorillas and Bengal tigers.
Create peace by working with endangered humans.

Loving the day,
Lisa