Choose To Be Happy - Rick Foster & Greg Hicks
Announcing an updated edition of How We Choose to Be Happy with a new Introduction highlighting the connection between the 9 Choices and optimal health.
"How do I help my patients learn to be happy? I prescribe this book!"

Nicholas LaRusso, MD.
Chair, Dept of Medicine, Mayo Clinic

"...insightful and wise...this book includes uplifting stories of people who have learned to be happy."

Fit magazine

How We Choose To Be Happy

Rick Foster & Greg Hicks
Leadership Development · Team Dynamics Training · Executive Coaching
4053 Harlan Street, Loft 201, Emeryville, CA 94608
f: (510) 540-1241 · f: (240) 332-8483 · e: info@fosterhicks.com

Explore Your Happiness:
The Happiness Inventory

The following questionnaire will give you an impressionistic, personal happiness profile. The Inventory provides an intimate view of how you relate to the matrix of choices which create deep, enduring happiness.

The questionnaire is both descriptive and prescriptive. It will give you information about yourself and highlight areas that you might explore to make yourself happier. Once you have answered the following questions you will find a completed happiness profile at the end of the questionnaire. Once you have rated yourself, we will help you interpret your scores.

The Inventory is intended as a personal reference for your own use. Share it with others only if you wish. It will be most interesting for you if you are completely honest with yourself as you fill it out.

Before you continue on, how happy are you right now? Try to identify the way you feel physically and mentally at this moment. Do you feel content, centered, capable? Are you calm, oriented and rested?


How deeply happy are you? Rate yourself:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Not at all happy Extremely happy

1. Intention (Chapter 1 in How We Choose to Be Happy) is not simply the desire to be happy, but the intent to be happy. It is the fully conscious decision to choose happiness over unhappiness. As you go through your day, to what extent do you actively intend to be happy?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Never Always

2. Accountability (Chapter 2) is the choice to assume full personal responsibility for our actions, thoughts and feelings, and the emphatic refusal to blame others for our own unhappiness. It is the insistence on seeing ourselves as having control over our own lives, rather than being at the receiving end of circumstance. When happy people have been hurt they refuse to act like victims. To what extent do you assume personal responsibility for your life and take a pro-active stance in the face of sad or difficult circumstances?
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Never Always
3. Identification (Chapter 3) is the ongoing process of identifying for ourselves what makes us truly, deeply happy. So, happy people can tell us in an instant, what makes them happy. As you go through your day, to what extent do you ask yourself "Which choice or direction will make me happiest?"

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Never Always

4. Centrality (Chapter 4) is the happy person's non-negotiable insistence on making that which creates happiness a central activity in life. Happy people don't "wait to retire" or put off for later that which gives them greatest joy. They live their passions and dive into those things that make them happiest regardless of the complexities of their life circumstances. To what extent do you insist on doing this?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10


5. Recasting (Chapter 5) is the choice to turn problems into opportunities and challenges. It is also the moving and profound ability to convert extreme trauma into something meaningful, important and a source of life-giving energy. To what extent do you recast everyday problems by turning them into opportunity? Do you allow yourself to feel unhappy emotions deeply, and then, as healing allows, move through sadness by converting trauma into opportunities and meaning?
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Never Always

6. Creation of Options and Possibilities (Chapter 6) is the decision to approach life by being open to any new possibilities, and of taking a flexible approach to life's journey. In your own life, are you aware of opportunities? Do you take risks? Do you try new things? Are you flexible enough to jump into the unknown for the experience of trying something important or new?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Never Always

7. Appreciation and Aliveness (Chapter 7). Happy people actively appreciate their lives and express gratitude and thanks to the people around them. They seem to revel in each moment rather than focusing on the past or worrying about the future. They talk about being exquisitely aware of the fragility and preciousness of existence. To what extent are you aware of the moment and grateful for your life and those around you?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Never Always

8. Giving (Chapter 8) Sharing one's self with friends, community and the world at large without the expectation of a "return on investment" is a hallmark choice of happy people. Giving is a constant in life, and may manifest itself in one's profession, community work, or with friends and family. It is the act of sharing yourself — your talents, resources and hospitality. To what extent do you give richly of yourself to others?
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Never Always
9. Truthfulness (Chapter 9) Happy people "speak their truth" in an accountable manner, enforce personal boundaries, and will not conform to the demands of society, the corporation or the family if it violates their personal belief systems. Their truthfulness becomes a contract they have with themselves and, most important, it is a way to check their thoughts and actions against their own internal, personal code. How truthful are you with yourself and others?
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Never Always

Your Happiness Profile

See below for interpretation.
       
   

   
 
   

Profile Interpretation


We have found that the best way to approach your scores is to look at the areas you have scored highest and lowest. First, look at your high ratings. Chances are, the choices in which you score highest are your strongest areas. Enjoy them, and appreciate yourself for making these choices. They are contributing to your overall feelings of psychological centeredness, emotional capability and feelings of wellbeing.

Next, take a look at your lowest score (or scores). Low scores suggest that you are not deriving joy from these choices. Choose the least strong area. It is the point on the wheel that needs most work. For example: if you score low on appreciation, try building appreciation into your life for one day. Find people and things to appreciate in the moment, right now. If giving is a problem for you, spend one day donating time to a charity or helping a friend without any expectation of a "return on your investment." If truthfulness is a low score, spend a day without telling one "little white lie" and be completely truthful with yourself.

The wheel is synergistic. That is, if you work on one choice all the others will begin to function better. You do not have to do everything at once. In fact, creating happiness is a lifelong activity. But, as a start, try improving your happiness level a little at a time and you will find that, in fact, you will be able to choose to be happy!