Our journey began with a simple yet powerful idea from one of our members, Bob. He proposed that the Society of Happy People should initiate a holiday dedicated to celebrating happiness because there were many holidays for various things, however there wasn’t one specifically for happiness.

Upon reflection, I thought, why not create a holiday for happiness? After all, happiness is a universal feeling that deserves to be recognized as a holiday. The other recognized days that immediately came to my mind were often related to diseases. Why not shift the focus to something more positive?

I wasn’t sure how to make it official, so I decided to request proclamations for all 50 governors.

Being an optimist, I felt confident that I would get 50 proclamations because who couldn’t support celebrating being happy when you were happy? After countless hours of getting addresses, mailing letters, and following up phone calls, emails, and faxes with staff members, we secured 19 proclamations.

I might not have done this if I had realized how daunting the task would be. However, in hindsight, I’m glad I did. You can read about it in my newly re-released ebook, Don’t Even Think of Raining on My Parade: Adventures of the Secret Society of Happy People. It even includes an update for the years that follow.

I don’t know what I expected to happen after I started Happiness Happens Day, but 25 years later, we are still celebrating. I quickly searched online for the original Admit You’re Happy Day, which appeared over 2.5 million times.

Society members requested that the day be expanded to a month the following year, and we happily accommodated their request.

We pick a theme each year to help people notice more happiness and then talk more about those moments. And, of course, we have had lots of fun through the years.

This year, we will return to our roots and focus on what makes us personally happy, or Practical Happiness Principle One: Happiness is Personal.

You get to fill in the blank. We want you to think about the moments you feel happy or good so you can keep doing more of that.

Since our happiness changes as we change (Practical Happiness Principle Three), we have created a “Happiness Happens When” Prompt Sheet.