DOING WHAT MAKES YOU the happiest CAN ALSO MAKE YOU HEALTHY, RIch, deepen your friendships, and make your life amazing in general.

Start With Happiness is a personal development project that I (Alex Haapamäki) published in the end of 2017. With this project I want to share this idea that I have found to be true in my own life as well as to different degrees been able to help other people find in their lives too, but that for some reasons (that are quite complex and take a while to explain) seem to pretty much never be talked about by even the most famous and well known personal development "gurus" over the world, psychologists etc.

The idea is basically that you can learn to live your life so that what makes you happy, also will make you healthier, wealthier and be a good impact for your relationships as well as build new amazing relationships. Most people live in a reality where if they do what makes them the happiest, and exclusively did that, they would end up broke, unhealthy and possibly alone. I am saying you don't need to live in that reality.

I know this probably sounds like a radical idea. Too good to be true. Your mind might already have made up at least 20 reasons for why what I am sying here can't possibly be true. But be honest, you do wish that it was true. If all your problems could be solved from you doing things you enjoy, life would be much more awesome and easier. Your life could become outright amazing if this was the case.

I am not the best communicator in the world. And I cannot influence your past experiences in life that are the reason you think the way you think today. For some people reading this, what will happen is that their cynical/skeptical brain will work overtime when they read these words and they will for the rest of their lives call bullshit on me. I can't do anything about that.

Then other people who might be more curious and think: "Shit, what if there actually is something here?", will continue looking into if this theory has any merit.. My hopes are that this decision you make will be one of the best decisions you will ever make. But I am 100% transparent and honest when I am saying that it will take some real curiosity from you to get to that point, because I am simply not a hypereffective communicator yet.

"Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures" is a quote that I really really like. Take a second and think about the profoundness of it. Without curiosity, you will probably never know anything significantly different from what you know now. Adventure is exciting, and I know you want excitement in your life, but if you keep doing what you have always been doing, and thinking what you have always been thinking, chances are you won't get that out of life. If nothing else, remember that you are way more prone to boredom than excitement in your life if you let you skepticism overrule your curiosity.

Basically, I launched this project in the end of 2017, just to realize that yes, this idea is very radical and hard for most people to accept, and that my communication skills (especially online) were not super good. Not a really good combo.

Life is full of difficult decisions. I decided to pursue another project of mine that is also very dear to me, I at the time thought would let me live a life where I 100% love everything I do for a living faster and would teach me skills that would make running this project easier in the future. This means that I have absolutely not given up on this project, just that I believe there will be a slightly more strategical time in my life to pursue it to the fullest.

I did let the website that I launched in 2017 just disappear when I had to renew the hosting etc, because there was no activity on there anyway. However, since then, people have asked me why I have no website and why they can't find any content, so I realized I should set up a temporary website where one can find the content I have created so far in the project as well as get in contact with me. Better to have something rather than nothing even if I am not super actively working on this project right now.. And that's the website you are at right now.

Below I will include links to all of the content I created within the Start With Happiness project around the time I launched it. I would probably suggest starting with some of these. This content includes sort of a longer blogpost that used to be the first page on my website, an e-book, an audio version of the e-book (basically a long podcast episode where I talk about the same topics as the book is about), one Youtube-video, 3 Facebook live videos and one online course. There unfortunately probably won't be too much new content until I start working on this project again, but I am available for coaching also in this "inbetween period" which is for many people ultimately the best way to start learning this "Start With Happiness"-idea anyway since we can specifically tailor it exactly to your needs based on your life.

If ultimate efficiency is your thing, I'd recommend you go for the coaching directly, but if you want to do some self studying first, I'd start this way:

First read the blogpost that used to be the intro to my old website.

Then listen to the podcast version of my book. One trick is to listen to it in the background while you do some daily boring repetitive tasks you need to do anyway, like cooking, cleaning, commuting, washing dishes etc. Chances are you will this way already from the get go be able to make your life more enjoyable (by turning a boring task like cleaning into an interesting adventure about some deep theories and ideas about life!) as well as learn a ton of stuff that will make your future life much easier and more enjoyable.

After the blogpost and "podcast book", I'd say have a look at this list of content and pick and choose what you find most interesting from the list below first and start there.

The e-book

Youtube video

Facebook live 1

Facebook live 2

Facebook live 3

The "How to make your boring job fun"-online course (Contact me via the contact form below to get a $37 coupon code)

The Learn Beach Volleyball Fast Podcast (This podcast is a part of the other project I am running. Basically the topic is personal development combined with beach volleyball, and many of the topics discussed are definately applicable to life in general and not only beach volleyball, so it might be interesting for you.)

Coaching really is the most efficient way for you to get into personally tailored Start With Happiness thoughts that fit your life. Coaching is also at the moment the only way to get access to tons of thoughts and ideas that will be included in the Start With Happiness-project in the future but hasn't been made into content yet. The coaching happens online via Skype (or similar) so it doesn't matter where in the world you are as long as you have an internet connection. Of course we can also do the coaching in person if we happen to be in the same physical location.

I know how insanely valuable, lifechanging and amazing coaching can be, I have many times over gotten my life flipped over to the better by coaching. However, I also know how "abstract" or "fluffy" lifecoaching might sound like before one has experienced it.

Because of the value I know my coaching to have in combination with the lose-lose situation happening from people who'd get greatly helped by my coaching but don't try it because they don't understand how it helps them, I have decided that for a limited amount of people, I will provide the first session free of cost, no strings attached whatsoever.

I believe in my coaching so much and know that it works to the point that I know it will be better for everyone if I do provide this free session, because so it often leads to either the person becoming a client or the person being able to refer someone else to me that it becomes a true win-win regardless.

If you want to see what coaching with me would be like, you can apply for coaching here. If you get a spot, will have a 2 hour free session where we will explore what is holding you back from living the life you want to live in a deeper way than you have ever experienced before. And don't worry, it really is no strings attached, in the long run I only work with people that truly want to work with me so if it isn't a "hell yes", then it's a no from both parties anyway.

There will be proof, someday. Right now I don't have too much time to gather it as I am busy with other things. The whole Start With Happiness project is based on a combination of thoughts from ancient philosophers, some of the smartest thinkers in the history, newfound insights from brain and happiness research, thoughts from industry leading business and career strategists and of course a decent hint of my own thoughts. There would be no reason for me to start this project if it wasn't any different from stuff that have already been done, and I wholeheartedly believe it will be better than existing personal development projects for a lot of people... And I have looked very long and hard.

Is this proof enough or not? Not sure, only the amount of your curiosity can decide.

If you want to get notified when the project will get active again in the future, please send me a message via the contact form below and tell me that!