I’ve often talked about my writers group on this blog, partly because it makes me so happy and partly because it’s such great fodder for blog posts. Today and tomorrow are no exceptions; they’re both about what happened this past Tuesday night.

Today’s post is about one of the actors making me very happy, and tomorrow’s is about one of the actors making me very unhappy, which gave me a chance to learn something far more valuable than what I would have if his performance had been perfect.

The actor who made me happy walked in and immediately started talking to me, very excitedly, about Happiness as a Second Language. I had given him a copy a few weeks ago (as a thank you for a favor he’d done), and much to my surprise, he was reading it.

But he wasn’t just reading it, he had created a schedule for reading it, and putting the techniques into practice. I couldn’t believe my ears. He was…following it.
And it was working. That was the part he was so excited to tell me.

Specifically, he had just gotten through the chapter on Colors, and found that to be the most useful one yet. At this point, I was speechless. In all the feedback I’ve been getting so far, no one has yet mentioned this chapter, which is a little heartbreaking to me, not only because it’s some of my favorite work in the book, but also because it is unique to HSL. I really want people to try this technique, because I created it from scratch and I know it works.

And here was proof!  From an actual reader!  This actor started telling me about his two day jobs, and how one of them is really satisfying, but the other is really frustrating, and he hates going there.  So, after getting through Chapter Four of the book, he made a conscious effort to figure out his happiest color, and when he went to work the next day, he changed the background on his Google Calendar to that color.  AND IT WORKED!  He said he’s been much happier in that job, just seeing his color every day and having it remind him of his own happiness.

I am bursting with joy just typing this!  I want to scream this story from the rooftops. Now I can’t wait to hear his results with verbs, nouns and adjectives.

He also has no idea what sharing that did for me.  I’ve been beating myself up a little this past week over lagging sales and missed promotional opportunities, and feeling like a bit of a failure as an author, but this one story reminded me why I wrote the book in the first place. I changed someone’s life for the better. I have a legacy that will live on beyond my lifetime and it’s a good thing — a really, really good thing.

I am successful beyond my wildest dreams, because I know that I helped make another human being happy.