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Alex Shalman recently began a series of interviews with some bloggers that he has found to be influential or motivational. In a recent post, he shared his interview questions with the rest of us, and invited people to participate. Here are the questions, and my answers. I encourage you to post your own answers here in the comments.

The Questions

1. How do you define happiness?- I would define happiness as a freedom from fear and want. Without the shadow of those two ugly parts of this world, you are able to do the other things in your life that make you happy.
2. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your happiness now, versus when you were a child? - I would rate my happiness now at an 8.5, compared to 6 or 7 as a child. I had a lot of trouble “fitting in” as a young person, and I had a lot of foolish dreams and ideas that were crushed and shattered by reality. I have learned a lot about people and about myself in the past 38 years that makes everything easier. When it comes to people and life and the events that come your way, the important thing is to stay true to yourself and the people that love you. I believe that the biggest part of my current level of happiness is that I am pursuing my life-long dream of creating my own business, being my own boss, and captain of my soul.
3. What do you do on a daily basis that brings you happiness? (and how consistent is the feeling of happiness throughout your day) - Right now, I am very engaged in my writing and blogging work. I am very happy when someone who reads these words takes the time to leave a thoughtful comment, or send a personal e-mail (thanks, Claire!). Yet while work is something, it is not everything, nor the most important thing. The most important thing to me is my wife and our life together. I mentioned to her the other day that I am happier now than I have been in a while, and I worry a little about things turning south. She laughed, “You have no job, no money, and you are happier now?” I said that yes, I am. I have you, I have my health, and I have a future with unlimited possibilities.
4. What things take away from your happiness? What can be done to lessen their impact or remove them from your life? - I do a lot of “lifestyle therapy” to keep my ADD in check, and I have learned to edit out a lot of the things that make me stressed-out and unhappy. I avoid drama and unnecessary anxiety by being very careful about what inputs I have in my life. I do not watch very much TV, and I have turned away from politics (which used to consume my attention, I was a HUGE news junkie for a long time). I do not associate with people that are “emotional vampires” (you know what I mean!), or that do not have the moral fortitude to take responsibility for their own lives.
5. What do you plan on doing in the future that will bring you even more happiness? - I have written a three-part plan to increase happiness and freedom in my life. One part is to increase the scope and value of this community, adding readers and contributors who can help each other benefit from improved productivity in all aspects of their lives. By this, I mean increasing the things that get done in order to enjoy your life, not to fill every minute with work and production. Every day I look forward to the prospect of being done. Another part has to do with achieving some financial goals and other personal development goals. Stay tuned and you will see it all unfold here [Subscribe! wink].

What is next?

I am glad that you asked. Please go ahead and leave a comment, share the things that make you happy, or the things that do not and how you avoid them. Get involved, and let’s see what we can do together to increase everyone’s happiness.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/4u3eve. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen