The reasons for change are endless: A new career. An old habit. A new one. Acquiring a skill. Overcoming a fear. Ending procrastination. Becoming happier. But no matter the reason or the kind, all change has a starting point. This post is a tribute to the late Dr. Stephen R. Covey. Change is made possible by understanding the principles undergirding change. Covey taught those principles.

What do your kids most need from you? Here are 10 gifts you can give your children that will change their lives … and yours … forever. Come see why parenthood is such serious business. There’s no other business, in fact, more important you can spend your time and energy building. Average parenting requires average effort. Great parenting requires more of us. It requires us to work on the inside, on the person who is the parent. Offering these gifts will require that deep commitment to what’s best to raise happy, loving and decent men and women.

There are things that matter and things that don’t. Some of those beliefs and ideas that don’t matter can actually poison the soul and kick us where it counts. Here are 4 things that don’t matter. But they can also lead to destroyed lives of waisted potential and deep sadness. Avoid these pitfalls for a much more rewarding life of happiness and decency.

When we live lives disconnected from those things that truly matter, sidetracked by the unimportant, lost in the frivolous, distracted by the superficial, our lives start to ring hollow, empty and vacant. But when we fill our lives with weightier things, our lives feel bigger, more meaningful and happier.

The test of one’s moral convictions is not in the safety of a questionnaire or in the sterile environment of a trial study, but in the field, in real life, when and where it counts. That’s where true moral courage is necessary. And it’s in those moments that standing up for what’s right can make a world of difference. What kind of world are you willing to help create? One in which we collectively sit and wait? Or one wherein we stand to be counted?

If a statue were to be erected in your honor, what would it be sculpted to look like? Would the statue be holding a pen, a ball, a child or lifting a fallen stranger from the ground? Or would it instead be clutching a TV remote and a bag of chips with the look of boredom dully etched onto its granite face? What are you doing with your life? Are you living it primarily on your butt or on your feet? What do you stand for? What are you committed to?

Happiness can be a difficult thing to attain. It requires living your life according to principles that create it. It requires uncovering the internal obstacles and overcoming them. It requires developing certain traits that are conducive to it. And it requires establishing some habits and attitudes of thought and perspective that can take some sustained effort over time to acquire. Bottom line, happiness is no wimpy trait. Come see what I mean!

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.

There are physical cancers that destroy the body. There are also moral cancers that destroy character, self-respect and relationships of all kinds. Come read and learn the differences between character cancers and misdiagnosed character traits and how to root out the destructive cancers before they devour the characteristics and conditions of a happy life.

When nothing stands between you and the mirror of life, you will recognize the importance of four basic components of life: 1) Your thoughts, 2) Your beliefs, 3) Your relationships and experiences, and 4) Your character. Each is crucial to your happiness. Corrupt any one of the four components and your happiness will be compromised. Period. End of story. This post explores the importance of character to a happy life.

There is no role a man can play that is more important than fatherhood. It’s been said, as a matter of fact, that no success can compensate for failure in the home. Let’s, then, make Father’s Day a day of recommitment to being the best fathers we can be! Both children and fathers will be happier for it.

When we choose to use our limited resources in one particular way, we simultaneously choose not to use those same resources in any number of other possible ways. Here are some tradeoffs I would advise against.

Does your happiness matter to others? Should it? There is one very good reason why Read More.

There is an economic principle known by its acronym, TINSTAAFL. It stands for: There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, meaning, of course, that nothing is free, that everything has a cost. It is also a principle of Happiness. So, what is the cost of being happy?