Words are the casings that contain the explosive power of ideas. They are packages of potent meaning, arsenals of potential. They can tie you to a miserable life or liberate you. They can wake us up, move us, motivate, inspire, change, redirect, open and free us. They can push us to reevaluate, leap, hope, believe, act, create and do. What words most reflect your life?

There are 2 complementary ways to learn how to do anything, whether it’s driving, playing a sport, a musical instrument, starting a business or becoming happy. One way is to learn what to do and how to do it. The other is to learn what not to do and how to avoid it. This is a sort of anti-map to happiness. A map that identify the potholes and detours and debris along the path to a happier life.

The questions we never ask can never produce the answers they would have led to. The questions we never ask fail to open paths or illuminate lives or introduce possibilities or redirect courses. The questions we never ask keep lights dim, insight shallow and lives floating, drifting and sometimes sinking. Drift and sink no more. Asked yourself these transformational questions?

Why do we take the whole of humanity and carve them up into distinct categories of subdivided, semi-related, subgroups, sorted and classified as separate clusters of generalized identities, all tagged and marked for racial and lingual and socioeconomic distinction, subsectioned into demarcated and clearly separated differences? Why not think of others the way my son does?

Does happiness truly matter? Does your happiness really make a difference? I contend it does. As a matter of fact, there is little in life more important than how happy you are. I would even add that happiness is the very object and design of your existence. This is not as far-fetched as you may think. See why.

I challenge you to do something you’ve always wanted to do. Or learn something you’ve wanted to learn. Or go somewhere you yearn to go. A talent you wish you had. A skill you want to develop. A hobby you want to pursue. But don’t wait. Start today. Not next year or next week or in a couple days. Tomorrow. At the latest.

Are you addicted to your smart phone? Do you spend a significant chunk of the day online? Or playing games? Or watching TV? How long can you go without checking status updates or text messages or your twitter feed? The more we rely on electronic media and electronic forms of interaction, ironically, the more disconnected we become. This challenge is to unplug and reconnect.

When you hold on to resentment or anger or hatred, letting it eat you up from the inside out, your mind gets stuck in a continuous loop. You replay the offense over and over again, unable to free yourself from the person you most want to get away from. Well, it’s time that ends. Learning to forgive your offender will finally free yourself of that mental loop and open yourself to a life filled with more love and more happiness.

Honesty, they say, is the best policy. It’s time we put it to the test. Have you ever gotten tangled up in your own web of lies? Are you in the habit of bending the truth? Do you fib and tell little white lies to get out of trouble or avoid drama or skirt confrontation or annoyances? Come take the honesty challenge and see how it affects your relationships, self-respect and life.

Some people go through life complaining about the weather, complaining about the economy, complaining about the neighborhood, even complaining when there’s isn’t enough to complain about! They moan and groan about anything and everything and nothing at all. Their complaints quickly become the sound of nails on chalk boards, their voices shrill with the whine of helplessness. It can be raining gold coins in their backyard and they’ll complain about the flowers crushed by the falling wealth. Stop it!

Happiness is not about trying to make you feel good all the time. It doesn’t always feel good to climb mountains over rugged terrain. Legs burn. Arms ache. Shins bloody. Feet blister. Toes bruise. Shoulders knot and backs grow weary. But that’s how you get to mountaintops. Happiness is not always in the valley. Quite often, it’s at the summit after a long climb. This is a post meant to get you climbing again.

Something deep inside me yearns to reach millions, to extend the message of happiness to every corner of the globe. Not being one to sit around and wait for things to happen, I’m launching The Happiness Movement. Check it out and take a look at the special invite/offer to bloggers.

Has life lost its spark? Does it feel hallow and empty? Has the meaning of your life been lost to the daily grind of living? Has the flame gone out? If you feel like something is missing, whether large and numbing or small and vaguely unsatisfying, it may be time to reevaluate the meaning of your life, or perhaps simply add more meaning to it.

Who determines the vision that guides you, the goals that take you there, the standards that govern the goals you set, the tone and tenor of your brand, the personal culture of integrity and character you’re known by, the way you spend your time, energy and resources? The answer to this question may not be as obvious as you think. See if you can identify who most often operates as your chief decision-maker …

Have you ever remodeled, repaired and re-carpeted the living room of your life only to watch the whole house sink into the mud of frustration, disappointment and boredom? Learning where happiness resides is often the first step to developing more of it in your life. A house is a handy metaphor to help us understand just how to build an amazing mansion of happiness in your own life.

A blow-up with my son led to some valuable life lessons about anger.

Have you ever wondered who you were, deep inside, in your heart and soul and the marrow of your bones? Do you ache to know? To get a glimpse into the mystery of your own worth and value? If so, you’re not alone. Every month, about 101 million searches (or over a billion annually) ask Google for insight into the perennial question: “Who am I?”

Are your goals in harmony with your faith, beliefs and values? If not, you may find yourself fighting an internal battle that can’t be won, a bit like arm wrestling yourself. No matter who wins, you lose. Learn to set sticky goals instead, that become reflections of the deepest part of you, making them near inevitabilities.

What separates you from the realization of your goals is nothing more than a series of decisions made consistently over time. 92% of those who set goals fail to achieve them. Become the 8% by doing what the 8% do!

We are what we think about over time. We are the accumulation of all our attitudes, beliefs, fears, hopes and dreams, all the thoughts that fill our minds on a regular basis. We are our own self-fulfilling prophesy. Our thoughts are the prisons we condemn ourselves to or they are the keys we use to unlock possibility and potential. There are ways to unleash that potential and live a life of deeply rewarding happiness.