A month or so back I received an email by way of my "hobby" project Stymie Magazine from Andy Parsons the Chief Awesome Officer (note, this is not his real title, but it probably should be) at Happify. The gist of the note was that Andy (and Happify) were conducting research on how different activities correlated to an individual's happiness - and Stymie caught their eye on the reading equates to smiles front and they were curious if I was willing to participate in their Beta.

Next thing you know I'm a "Happify Pioneer" and participating in "tracks" and exercises focused on measuring and increasing one's overall happiness. The site allows you to keep your progress private (my preference so far) or to share it with the community - a function that is a best of all means mashup of tumblr, Pinterest, and Facebook (or at least that's how it strikes me) along with a scoring system that does for your perception of happiness what Klout does for your social media presence (i.e. it quantifies it), but don't just take my word for it, see a sample of the site below:




Happify is an interesting tool, with a strong focus on the individual experience while linking what might feel like an exercise in the warm-and-fuzzy back to scientific research and practices, that has the ability to help individuals - and should an organization see the value in it, an entire enterprise once it is live and open to the public. Because, at the end of the day we're better people (and employees) when we're happy (and engaged) and in a place of wellness - and Happify looks like an awesome new way to potentially help ourselves or employees achieve that, and who doesn't like that?

That all said, I have FIVE INVITATIONS to become a "Happify Pioneer" for the first five readers of The Field Guide who drop a comment below (or if you prefer anonymity, shoot me an email using the link at the bottom of the page) - drop me a note and you could be turning that frown upside down in no time.


Header Photo Credit: JD Hancock via Compfight cc