Happiness Blog Tour Stop

Bryan Cohen here, guest poster and author, promoting my new book The Post-College Guide to Happiness for The Happiness Blog Tour. I'm giving away free digital review copies of the book and doing a giveaway for paperback copies, audio copies and even a Kindle Fire! Read on and check out the info below the post. "Happiness is a thing to be practiced, like the violin."
- John Lubbock I once wanted to be on the varsity soccer team at my high school. I had some natural ability but I knew it would be an uphill climb against taller and more skilled athletes than myself. I wrote down on a piece of paper how much I'd need to practice to have an outside shot at qualifying. It would require several hours a day of running, drills and lifting weights. I came up with a master plan...and promptly didn't do it. Yes, I still practiced, but not nearly as much as I'd set out in my plan to make the team. I knew this immense amount of practice would have to be a given if I wanted a shot at a spot on the squad, but I wasn't willing to put in the hard work necessary. I've always regretted not putting in my all, because who knows if I'd have made it or not if I'd given 100 percent. My quest for happiness has kind of been my second shot at qualifying for varsity in something. Most people think happiness is an innate thing: you either have it or you don't. In actuality, it's like Lubbock says, happiness is something you have to practice. "But how?" you might ask. Let's compare it with soccer. In soccer, toughness and determination are key to working harder than the other players. In happiness, attitude is the backbone to lifting up everything else you do to be more positive. You build up your attitude by practicing with your spouse, co-workers and friends. In the beautiful game of soccer, a ton of running is necessary to keep you in shape for each contest. In happiness, you need emotional endurance, a kind of thick skin to weather things that would usually cause you distress and emotional worry. Practice building up such a tolerance by using deep breathing and logic during situation you'd usually let your emotions get out of control in. Lastly, soccer requires skill and precision to manipulate the ball anywhere on the field. Happiness requires skill at setting and achieving the goals that are most important to you. Create small, attainable goals and work your way up to larger and more life altering objectives to practice this important skill. I never played varsity soccer, but I do have the opportunity to enjoy a more fulfilled life by practicing my happiness. -- Bryan Cohen is giving away 61 paperback and audio copies of The Post-College Guide to Happiness and a Kindle Fire between now and May 7th, 2012 on The Happiness Blog Tour. All entrants receive a free digital review copy of The Post-College Guide to Happiness. Bryan hopes to give away at least 1,000 copies during the blog tour. To enter, post a comment with your e-mail address or send an e-mail to postcollegehappiness (at) gmail.com. Bryan will draw the names at the end of the tour. Entries will be counted through Sunday, May 6th. Bryan Cohen is a writer, actor and comedian from Dresher, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 with degrees in English and Dramatic Art and a minor in Creative Writing. He has written nine books including 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More, 500 Writing Prompts for Kids: First Grade through Fifth Grade, Writer on the Side: How to Write Your Book Around Your 9 to 5 Job and his new book, 1,000 Character Writing Prompts: Villains, Heroes and Hams for Scripts, Stories and More. His website Build Creative Writing Ideas helps over 25,000 visitors a month to push past writer's block and stay motivated. Feel free to follow along with the tour at The Happiness Blog Tour Hub Page or on the book's Facebook Page.