AlexShalman.comPractical Personal Development

I want you to brace yourself, because I’m going to tell you what you want out of life. In fact, I’m going to tell you what all human beings want across the board. From the most selfish human, to the most selfless saint, the one thing that we share in is the desire to be happy.

I think it’s safe to say that happiness is something we wish to experience as much as possible. This is why I believe it’s important to understand where happiness comes from, what is it, and how can we stimulate more of it.

The people that are taking part in this interview are very notable bloggers and powerful influences in my life. The reason I chose them is because they’re clearly respected and admired by thousands of people. It made sense to see what the people we look up to think about the subject that affects us all.

My goal for this project is to explore the subject of happiness, and spread the awareness that happiness is achievable by anyone and everyone, at any time. The possibility that I create for this project, is that everyone who participates, and reads these interviews will be left inspired, empowered, and happier than they were before.

The Questions

1. How do you define happiness?
2. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your happiness now, versus when you were a child?
3. What do you do on a daily basis that brings you happiness? (and how consistent is the feeling of happiness throughout your day)
4. What things take away from your happiness? What can be done to lessen their impact or remove them from your life?
5. What do you plan on doing in the future that will bring you even more happiness?

Happiness Project: Format

Each Monday morning at 6am EST, in the month of February, I will be posting the weekly lineup of participants of the Happiness Project. At noon each weekday, I will put up a single interview, in which I will include a short biography, or autobiography of the participants, as well as their answers to the questions above.

Due to the overwhelming, and generous, response that I received, some days will have two interviews through out the day. Who knows I might even put up another article to keep you entertained. However, I think that I will be using this month to guest post on other blogs. If you would like to guest post on this site, head over to the contribution page, and read through the details.

Interviewees: A Contest

When I asked people to participate in this Happiness Project, I did not tell them there would be any prizes in it for them. Everyone contributed out of good will, and was very happy to do so. While it may not always be the case in life, as it currently stands, this good will is going to be rewarded.

If you are one of the amazing people that I’ve had a chance to interview, you can take part of this project as if it were a contest. The winner will be decided based on which article has the highest number of original comments at the end of the month. Original meaning from different people and I.P. addresses.

Interviewee Contest: Prizes

The winner of this contest will get to choose their favorite charity, to which I will send $200. The gift of giving is amazing, and I’d like to give that gift of giving to you. In addition, the winner will receive 1 month free advertising in the 468×60 header (which is dual rotation), and 1 month free advertising in the homepage 340×280 (which is dual rotation).

Group Writing Project: Instructions

I would love it if everyone followed the whole project, from interview to interview, and left thoughtful and insightful comments. However, I also want to give you another way to engage this topic, and open up to your own readers at the same time. During the month of February, you can participate in the happiness project by answering the interview questions on your own blog.

1. Be as genuine as possible when answering the questions.
2. Link back to this post in order to let others known about the project, and so I can keep count.
3. Just in case, post a link to your post in the comments below.

Group Writing Project: Prizes

Group writing projects can be an incentive in themselves. You get to share yourself with your readers, participate in a community by seeing what everyone else is writing about, and get linked to from a central location. I will be linking to all participants in a special post at the end of February. I will also be giving away several prices for those people who participated in the group writing project.

• 2 people will receive 125×125 advertisements for the whole month of March.
• 3 people will receive sponsored links for the whole month of March.

For those of you who don’t have a blog, or want another chance to win a prize, you can do so by being a Top Commentator for the month of February, and following along with the Happiness Project.

• 10 top commentators will receive a copy of Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert.

I’m going to be very strict with deleting spam comments, and continual spam will result in a ban. With that said, I’m looking forward to reading your thoughtful comments on all topics.

Notice to Advertisers

This is an excellent time to purchase an advertisement on this blog, as this promises to be a very engaging period of time. The month of January (2008) has seen well over 50,000 page views.

You Can click around the advertise page or go directly to the purchase form. As you can see, the ad prices are currently very cheap, and they will be going up at the end of the month, so hurry up and make your purchase now.

Side note: If you are interested to know what plugin manages all my advertisements, it’s none other than OIOPublisher, and I highly recommend it (my review).

Contribution

I would also really love it if you added the posts in the happiness project to social networking sites such as del.icio.us, stumbleupon, etc. You can always find links in the bookmark widget below. Also, feel free to link to this project, and to any specific interviews that you like, or strongly relate to. You can even go above and beyond, by telling your friends about this project, and about the site in general, and I will love you all the more for it.

Subscribers and Prizes

There are two ways to subscribe to this site and get updates about all future articles. You can do it through RSS reader, or through e-mail. You can even choose to add yourself to both lists, which are completely private, and your information will never be disclosed.

If you choose to subscribe through e-mail, I will be choosing 5 e-mail readers at random, to receive a copy of Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert.

All prizes: You have three ways in which you can get a prize. Group writing project, top commentator, or e-mail subscriber.

Visit the page titled Happiness Project in the header. This is where I will keep a running list of all the participants.

Update: The Contest is officially over, but you can still participate in the group writing project. Just answer the questions on your own blog, and I’ll ad your links to the happiness project page!