The Happiness Blog Tour and Giveaway Bryan Cohen (The Post-College Guide to Happiness)

Bryan Cohen here, guest poster and author, promoting my new book ThePost-College Guide to Happiness for The Happiness Blog Tour. I'm giving away free digital review copies of the book and doing a giveaway forpaperback copies, audio copies and even a Kindle Fire! Read on and check outthe info below the post.

IfI Only Had a Brain
"Thebelief that youth is the happiest time of life is founded on fallacy. Thehappiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts, and wegrow happier as we grow older."

- William Lyon Phelps

In my youth, like many among us, I made a lotof dumb decisions. I used to look back on those times with my 20/20 hindsightand get frustrated that I didn't spend my happiest days more effectively. Whatchanged? I realized that my youth wasn't necessarily going to be the bestperiod of my life.

What advantages did I have over my youngerdays? I had certainly grown in confidence from those awkward days of carryingmy huge backpack around the high school hallways. I was still impulsive, butmade fewer stupid decisions than my college days. I also was less frivolouswith the way I spent my money, unlike my early 20's in the big city. If I couldsum it all up in one verb, I learned "to think."
I'd done a done of thinking for educationpurposes, but this wasn't the same kind of thought. I'd been taught to thinkabout an essay or to analyze a math problem, but I certainly hadn't been taughtto think for myself and my future. What did I do as soon as I got out in thereal world, ready to take on my calling as a creative professional? I lookedback on the past with regret instead of thinking ahead toward the future! Howwas that going to improve my happiness?

I love Phelps' quote here as it's got a lot ofweight to it. He lambasts those who constantly look back and wish that thehappiest times of youth could continue. He pretty much says that it's a waste oftime and that you should instead be thinking ahead and improving how you thinkin the future. How do you develop the interest thoughts that Phelps isreferring to? It starts one day at a time. Buy a notebook or open up a wordprocessing documents once a day for a few minutes at a time. Write about whatyou can do to improve your life right now. You can write about a new businessidea, a wonderful trip to spend with your friends or partners or even a hobbythat you've been wanting to take part in but couldn't because you were tooyoung or scared. These are the beginnings of some interesting thoughts. If youkeep working on thinking about your life in the present, you'll be much happierand healthier than those who are constantly stuck in the past.
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Bryan Cohen is giving away 61 paperback andaudio copies of The Post-College Guide to Happiness and aKindle Fire between now and May 7th, 2012 on The Happiness Blog Tour. Allentrants receive a free digital review copy of The Post-College Guideto Happiness. Bryan hopes to give away at least 1,000 copies duringthe blog tour. To enter, post a comment with your e-mail address or send an e-mail to postcollegehappiness (at) gmail.com. Bryan will draw the names atthe end of the tour. Entries will be counted through Sunday, May 6th.

Bryan Cohen is a writer, actor and comedian from Dresher, Pennsylvania. He graduated fromthe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 with degrees in Englishand Dramatic Art and a minor in Creative Writing. He has written nine booksincluding 1,000Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More,500 Writing Promptsfor Kids: First Grade through FifthGrade, Writeron the Side: How to Write Your Book Around Your 9 to 5 Job and hisnew book, 1,000Character Writing Prompts: Villains, Heroes and Hams for Scripts, Stories andMore. His website BuildCreative Writing Ideas helps over 25,000 visitors a month to pushpast writer's block and stay motivated.
Feel free tofollow along with the tour at TheHappiness Blog Tour Hub Page or on the book's FacebookPage.