About Project Happiness
Our Story
What began with one deeply personal question grew into a shared mission.
It began with a question
Project Happiness began at our kitchen table when my teenager quietly said:
“I want to be happy, but I don’t know how.”
As the struggle intensified, I searched widely for practical ways to help. I found a growing body of research showing that many of the qualities and capacities that support wellbeing—including resilience, mindful awareness, gratitude, compassion, and connection—can be cultivated through practice.
But the information was not always easy to find, understand, or apply to daily life.
I began to see that our family was not alone. We all face challenges that call upon these inner resources. What if we could make these insights easier to understand, accessible to more people, and genuinely useful in everyday life?
A personal search became a shared mission
That question led me to found Project Happiness in 2007.
What began as a deeply personal search for answers grew into a documentary, a book, educational programs, and practical resources used by young people, families, educators, and communities.
The work has evolved, but the belief at its heart remains the same:
Happiness can be learned, practiced, and shared.
- Documentary
- Book
- Educational programs
- Practical resources
Then the question grew deeper
Years later, as I sat beside my mother near the end of her life, I was struck by the painful sense that she had not experienced the happiness or peace I had so wished for her.
I found myself wondering whether the same might one day be true for me, or for others I loved.
Her death brought a deeper set of questions into focus:
How do we live and love fully?
How do we make the most of the time we have?
How do we become more fully alive?
Those questions expanded what happiness meant to us.
Happiness is not about feeling positive all the time or escaping the difficult parts of life. It is about developing the inner resources to meet the whole human experience with greater resilience, clarity, compassion, and openness to what brings us alive.
What if this is part of our purpose?
What if part of our purpose is to discover what we have to offer and put it in service of life?
We believe every person has a spark and the potential to be a force for good. This does not require a grand gesture. It can begin with one moment of presence, one compassionate response, one courageous choice, or one small action rooted in what matters.
What we strengthen within ourselves does not stop with us. It shapes how we listen, love, lead, and respond. It reaches into our relationships, workplaces, and communities.
How we show up in our own lives shapes how we show up for others.
This is how personal wellbeing becomes agency: the power to choose and act on what matters. It is how one person’s choices can strengthen another person’s life. It is how, together, we help create a better world.
Where we are going now
Today, Project Happiness turns the science of wellbeing into practical tools people can use in everyday life.
Our work helps people strengthen their resilience, reconnect with what matters, deepen their connections, and put their intentions into meaningful action.
Through the Seven Pathways, the Daily Reset, What Matters in Motion, and our growing collection of resources, we invite people everywhere to recognize the good they are capable of and carry it forward.
Because a better world is not created by an idea alone. It is created through the choices people make, the kindness they extend, and the courage they bring to the lives around them.
One person can begin. Together, we can grow a movement.
With love always,
Randy Taran
Founder, Project Happiness
