Today I am super-excited as the community of The Start of Happiness continues to grow stronger and stronger. We have already heard from 27 experts who shared their thoughts on starting the happiness in their own lives. We have also had a huge number of you take action and email or message me with your kind words, impacting my life and we have had our very first Happy Challenge. Just a couple of weeks ago we also had Paul Sanders provide a guest post on the link between friends and happiness. Today is another first for The Start of Happiness.  

Today I would love to let you all know about a guy who is doing wonders in changing the lives of others. He is a former psychotherapist with 20 plus years of combined experience in psychotherapy, organizational development consulting, corporate coaching, business coaching, life coaching and training and development.

He has coached a broad spectrum of clients, such as:

• The president of a Chicago local union
• Physicians and Nurse Practitioners
• Regional Sales Managers
• Top Performing Sales Professionals
• General Manager of a manufacturing plant
• President of an internationally known private company
• Police officers
• Firefighters
• Couples desiring relationship transformation
• Individuals struggling with depression, anxiety, confidence or career success

He has been quoted in media outlets such as the New York Times, The New York Post, The California Executive, The CBS Interactive Business Network BNET.com and is a frequent guest coach expert for www.womenworking.com.

He is the author of Mental Aikido: Rediscover Your Powerful Self, a story of resilience and personal reinvention, and more recently the “Seven Secrets to Happiness!”.

Stay tuned and we will let you know how you can get your free copy of his latest eBook, the “Seven Secrets to Happiness!”.

Introducing Alan Allard

I’d love to introduce you to Alan Allard.

Alan stumbled across the Start of Happiness and loved what he saw, knowing that we are both on the same path of helping individuals live a more satisfying and fulfilling life he decided to get in touch. Thanks Alan!

Being one of the USA’s greatest coaches, I was flawed when Alan shared with me his latest eBook – the Seven Secrets of Happiness for absolutely free. This just showed me Alan is the real deal… he’s on a mission to change the lives of others. I figured that I must interview this guy!

If you want to know how to get your free bonus of the Seven Secrets of Happiness, read on! But for now, let’s get to know Alan!   

Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do and how you came to doing what you do.

I am married to my high school sweetheart and we have two incredible daughters and equally great son-in-laws. I love to travel (I have been to six countries) love music, live theatre, books, exercise and fine cigars. Workwise, I am self-employed and work in the corporate and private arenas: I do corporate training, keynotes, executive coaching and consulting. I am also a life coach working with individuals and couples. I have a master’s degree and doctorate in Counseling (the doctorate done via independent study and metaphysical in orientation) and spent 12 years in private practice—and that’s where I learned what it takes to really change and rock your life.

During your time as a coach, consultant and speaker, you would have worked with a huge number of people from all walks of life. What have been some of the positive changes you have seen in people’s lives when they have worked with you and what has been the result?

I have helped clients turn their careers and personal lives around and create what they didn’t think was possible. As a therapist or life coach: One client wanted to be a professional speaker—despite no background as a speaker—but in six months he was travelling North America living his dream. One client came to me addicted to prescribed pain killers and after three hypnotherapy sessions she never used them again.  Another client was a minister’s wife and hated that but was afraid to tell her husband how she felt. In a few months’ time he resigned the ministry and found work he loved and she went on to be a top performing realtor. One client came to me after being raped on multiple occasions—she was having constant nightmares, panic attacks and thought no one could ever love her—she learned how to take her life back and go on to help others do the same. I have helped more couples than I can count to rediscover their love for each other or to end the relationship in the healthiest way possible.

As an executive coach and consultant: I coached a family who owned a privately owned company to come to agreement about selling their company after years of being divided on the subject—each person walking away with millions of dollars and feeling confident about their decision. Another client was a sales manager who had three bosses in a row that blocked her career success—in six months’ time she was able to navigate the political landmines, manage her current (incompetent boss) and get promoted to regional manager. One current client is a start-up company and I am consulting with them on hiring and developing top talent and redefine their industry. I have also coached many solo professionals to learn how to market themselves and significantly increase their revenue through what I call “Metaphysical Marketing.”

Tell us a little bit about the Seven Secrets to Happiness!. Where did the idea come from? What made you decide to write the eBook?

Over the years I have had clients, friends and colleagues (and especially my wife!) urge me to write about how I have helped my clients rediscover their powerful selves—so I started writing.

Can you quickly describe what each of the secrets to happiness are and how they can be implemented?

Happiness Secret One: Your Perspective Is Your Reality! 

Put this secret into action by reminding yourself that how you are feeling at any given moment—motivated or unmotivated, happy or frustrated, etc.—is a result of how you are subjectively viewing your outer circumstance or how you think of and evaluate yourself. When you shift your perspective about a situation or about yourself, your “reality” will change instantly.

Happiness Second Secret Two: Your Vision is the Blueprint for Your Life!

Write out your Life Vision. Begin with broad strokes or “bullet points” and describe your ideal life in various categories: health, career, money, relationships, fun and pleasure, etc. At this point, don’t think about being “reasonable,” just let your subconscious mind paint a picture. Focus on what you want at this point; the how comes later. You will then have a document you can revise as you grow in confidence, self-love and understanding.

Happiness Secret Three:  Master Your Self-talk, Master Your Life!

Pause throughout the day and review how your self-talk has been going. Don’t judge yourself for it, just increase your awareness. Once a day, use the ABCD model from the book.

Happiness Secret Four: Self-Confidence Rocks!

Start a list of your past achievements and of your personal qualities that make you feel good about yourself. Nothing is too small. Remember when you first learned to tie you shoes or drive a car? That rocks! Build on your list for the rest of your life and review at least several things daily.

Happiness Secret Five: There Is No Substitute for Self-love! 

You can increase your ability to love and accept yourself by saying “I love you” and “Thank you” to yourself throughout the day. “I love you for going to work today to provide for yourself or your family and for adding value to the universe through your work” (said to self) “Thank you for you taking a break to relax” (said to self) These are small things that will generate big results over time.

Happiness Secret Six: Gratitude, the Great Happiness Multiplier!

Write out three things that make you feel good about yourself or your life—anything you are thankful for, happy about or energized by. (Why not begin your day with this?) “I loved the sunrise this morning.” “My coffee was so good today!” “I love my children!” (or friends)

Happiness Secret Seven: Action Fuels Your Happiness!

Choose one exercise from the book and begin it. Start an exercise program even if it’s walking for ten minutes a day. Buy a journal and begin your “Gratitude List.” Do something, anything!

There are seven secrets to happiness. Do you feel as though any one of the secrets is more important or should be treated differently when compared to the others?

Each “secret” is vital and work synergistically with each other. With that said, the foundation is self-love because love is the most powerful energy force in the universe. Self-love is unconditional acceptance and positive regard towards self. When we go from “I’ll feel better about myself when…” (when I lose weight) or “I would love myself more if…” (If I were more disciplined) everything shifts in a powerful way. Love allows us to maintain balance during times of crisis and it gives us vision, creative energy and the ability to live an audacious life.

What’s your recommendation for people reading this right now? What immediate action would you recommend they take?

I would encourage them to consciously make a decision now (or as soon as they are ready!) to make their happiness their top priority! Not a priority, but the top priority. This scares some of us! I believe that’s because we haven’t learned to fully trust ourselves—we’re afraid that if we make happiness our top priority we would be “selfish” or in some other way violate some important value we hold dear.

But stop and think why our values are so important to us. Aren’t they important because we believe they are the way we should live? And why is that important? Because when we are aligned with our values, it makes us feel good—it makes us feel happy!

Making your happiness your top priority doesn’t mean you won’t love others, won’t be empathetic or in general won’t care about others. It means you will have more positive energy and will be able to more easily be and do all those things. After all, it’s kind of hard to empathize with someone when you’re feeling down, frustrated or worrying about something in your life.

Feeling happier doesn’t get in the way of being your highest self—it makes it easier for you to live from you highest self.

Where can people find more information about your work?

They can sign up for both my newsletter and my blog on my website at http://www.alanallard.com

Grab Your FREE copy of the Seven Secrets to Happiness!

Alan has been super-kind to us and offered his latest eBook, the Seven Secrets to Happiness to all the Start of Happiness readers, absolutely free!

The book is now available for all to download in the Happiness Toolkit. To gain free access to the Happiness Toolkit simply sign-up below!

A HUGE thanks to Alan not only for being a part of the Start of Happiness, but for making a difference in the lives of others! Make sure you head on over to his site and check it out. Thanks, Alan!

Brendan

P.S. The results of the Life and Happiness Survey are coming out shortly… and there are some things that have shocked me! Stay tuned!

 Image