First 100 Days, Are You Happy?

Since he took office, today marks the 100 day milestone for President Barack Obama.  Although some people have become cynical about making the first 100 days a prediction of what is to come, consider what the country and its new president have been through: job loss, economic-stimulus, foreclosures, albeit audacious, this I believe is the tip of the iceberg.  In his book "Nothing to Fear", Mark Schone talks about the striking parallels and differences between Presidents Obama and FDR first 100 days.  Writers are being encouraged to find parallels between FDR and Obama.  The first 100 days are certainly strong indicators for what the future holds which is where I find myself reflecting and the number of books that have encompassed my time since the first of the year.

1. Gregg Easterbrook:  Progress Paradox: How life Gets Better While People Feel Worse
2. Kim and Mauborgne's Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
3. Donald Kraybill Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy
4. Mark Jenkins A Man's Life: Dispatches from Dangerous Place
5. Richard Louv Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
6. Greg Mortenson Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time

One book in particular that resonated with me is Gregg Easterbrook's "Progress Paradox".  Easterbrook defines three virtues to happiness which appear to parallel those of Eleanor Roosevelt.  That being Forgiveness, Gratefulness and Optimism.  Having all three virtues lends itself to a person feeling better with themselves and others they surround, the lives they have been given and what the future holds.  For the past 100 days I continue to put myself through this litnus test and find if I am out of balance more often than not it is due to missing one of the three virtues. 

The first 100 days are now behind us, the next 100 are in the not so distant future and how happy we are about it is in our own hands.  What about you, how do you feel about the first 100 days, what books have shaped you since the first of the year and how do you define happiness?