Today’s post is very different from my usual writing. This is a letter written directly to you, my reader. I want you to know how I feel about you, that I’m proud of you, believe in you, appreciate you and believe you can become just about anything you decide to become. You are important and beautiful. You were meant to be happy and amazing, after all. Thank you all for the honor and trust and interest you’ve given to the principles and ideas I share here at Meant to be Happy.

While a new year is a nice benchmark of sorts, its really only one day after the day before. It holds no magic. Perhaps better than endless New Years Resolutions that seem so often to start and stop and start and flounder and start and end, would be to daily resolve to live that one 24-hour chunk of time to its fullest. Maybe by carving out an amazing day, all those amazingly meaningful days would add up to an amazingly beautiful life.

This is a Guest Post by Alex Mangini. Think of the last time the odds were against you. Maybe you were considered the underdog in a sporting event, or were told that your goals in life are unrealistic. Whatever the case may be, the only thing that’s important is how you overcome these problems. Some people thrive on adversity and use it to fuel success. You can learn this invaluable characteristic too. Steve Jobs exemplified this well.

In the spirit of the New Year and as a reflection of the human desire to rise to the moral occasion, here is a list of 45 suggestions to become a little more devoted to timeless principles in our ongoing effort at becoming a better person in 2012.

Guest Post by Stuart Mills of Unlock the Door: Ever felt like things were so bad you had no idea what to do? We’ve all been in situations where we worried that the very worst possible thing that could happen was going to happen, even when evidence suggested it wouldn’t. Sometimes these ‘worst-case scenarios’ actually take place. But more often than not, they appear in only one place – our minds.

I’ve been a high school teacher for about a decade now. I’ve been touched by the number of students who have shared their personal histories, both successes and heart aches, some of them gut-wrenching. But I’ve learned some valuable lessons about life along the way. Here, I present four of them.

Life has a way of hitting us upside the head at unexpected moments. Sometimes we stumble. Other times we fall and struggle to get back up again. Some people never do. Battered by circumstance, they become bitter and angry or depressed and despondent. An indescribable ache fills their hearts. A cloudy haze drapes their minds in indifference to anything but their own pain. Even their souls seem to become worn, ragged, ripped and broken. Others, however, seem to bounce back relatively quickly. There are reasons for that difference.