Happiness For the New Year

I've been rereading Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman for my Life Coaching research paper. I just found a great New Year's project that he recommends to start your year.
On p.81 he describes it, "Shortly after New Year's Day, I find a quiet half an hour to fill out a "January retrospective." I choose a time that is remote from any momentary hassles or uplifts, and I do it on my computer, where I have saved a copy for comparison purposes every year for the last decade. On a scale of 1 to 10 (abysmal to perfect), I rate my satisfaction with my life in each of the domains of great value to me, and I write a couple of sentences that sum up each. The domains I value, which may differ from yours, are as follows:
Love, Profession, Finances, Play, Friends, Health, Generativity, Overall and then Trajectory in which I scrutinize the year-to-year changes and their course across a decade.. I recommend this procedure to you. It pins you down, leaves little room for self-deception, and tells you when to act."
Sounds like a worthy project. That's what I'll be doing tomorrow.
Happy New Year to you all and a big Ho Ho Ho from Charlie the parrot.

'tis the season

As we enter into the final weeks of 2005, I've chosen this time to reflect on the past year. A book title comes to mind, The Gradual Awakening. Maybe it is my seeing what I want to see, but I'm sensing an awakening all around me, in terms of many of the problems we have become complacent about like poverty, global warming, dependence on our shrinking resources, disease, war, our dislocated communities, consumerism, corporate abuse, election fraud, greed and torture. It may be the internet, it may be cell phones, it may be various documentaries, Air America, but there is a growing need to get truthful information, meet and communicate in real time and solve these problems together, outside of the mainstream channels. A true grassroots uprising! What I have been experiencing is a strong, creative, motivated group of activists who are looking for positive ways to get beyond the anger and powerlessness and march out into the sunlight to find ways around the prevailing obstacles and make sure no one gets left out as we go forward. Yes the task is great but for these coming years we have no choice but to correct our human journey and heal the wounds to the earth and each other. It's more complicated than when the Beatles sang "All You Need Is Love" but let's grow our communities with rich soil, fresh air and water. Peace to you all for the New Year and to our brothers and sisters around this precious planet!