For a long time, I’ve been a student of happiness. There’s a large body of literature out there on what makes people happy, and it’s a great topic of interest among theologians, psychologists and social scientists. I’ve read much of the literature about happiness, but as Yogi Berra really did say, “You can observe a lot by watching.” And so for many years, I’ve also found it useful to watch people who I believe to be happy, and in so doing, I’ve tried to determine what happy people have in common.

I’ve asked some of my friends and colleagues a series of questions about what makes them happy, and to a remarkable degree, I’ve found there really are some traits that happy people have in common. From my observation, it has very little to do with money and success, and a great deal to do with people’s connections to other people; their ability to find an outlet for personal expression; their capability for showing gratitude and empathy; their generosity and commitment to their community; and their belief that what they do involves some form of a “higher calling.”Since one of my beliefs is that happy people find outlets for personal expression, I’m going to write about that very topic. I think the pursuit of happiness, which is an American ideal, is a large contributor to the explosion in blogs that we’ve seen over the last few years.

Before I start writing about happiness, I really want to learn even more about it, which is why I developed the questionnaire that’s linked to this page. It would be a big help if you’d take five minutes or so to answer the questions which you can find by clicking on the big red square at the top right of this page. It’s anonymous, and the only data I’m collecting about the people who take The Happiness Questionnaire is their age, gender and income.

I’m a big fan of “The Proust Questionnaire” that runs each month in Vanity Fair. This may not be as much fun as that is, and I’m actually asking people to participate in The Happiness Questionnaire posted here for a serious reason — to learn about what a broad section of the population believes contributes to their happiness. If you like The Happiness Questionnaire, share it with your friends. We’ve built it so you can easily email it to others, or post it on your Facebook page.

I look forward to getting the results, and sharing more with you on this topic in the weeks and months ahead. Thank you for considering to participate, and even more thanks to those who do.