Project Happiness Articles

The Parent Shift is a Master Class series featuring interviews with some of the world’s leading parenting experts, researchers and my favorite colleagues giving parenting solutions you can easily implement. Think of it as having a cup of coffee with some of the greatest minds in today’s research and therapy - the true change makers for families.

When we have a fixed schedule that we must stick to, we know exactly what the next step is. There is no more procrastination, and no more lost time. We are fully concentrated on our assignments, since we know that they must be completed. We create a routine that must be respected.

We are excited to announce that our CEO and Founder, Randy Taran, has been featured on The Happiness Club Interview Series.  She was interviewed by Bestselling Author, Inspirational Speaker, Happiness Expert and Founder of The Happiness Club, Jo Howarth. The interview series stars happiness experts from around the world.

I like it because you can embark on whatever you wish. How delightful it would be if we all, instead of "having to do", " should get done" or "must finish", we simply embarked on every day, every task, every thing as though we were compelled by this work to simply journey without necessarily knowing the ending.

Project Happiness all started around the dinner table, when Randy's teenage daughter look at her and said, "I want to be happy, but I don't know...how." It rocked Randy to her core. She asked herself, "Where were the resources, how many more were suffering, and why are we not talking about this?"

Facing mental health issues leaves you caught in the headlights. It strips you of everything you think is essential and forces you to reevaluate your life, and that's what has happened to me. Crazy, I know, but thats how my issues with mental health can alter my thinking. And yet I am not my illness, and every day I strive to take up the challenge to celebrate life for all that it is.

But when it comes to learning, there’s an unlimited amount to learn. So much so that you’ll be dead long before you get the chance to finish it all. And the more you learn and gain knowledge, the more self esteem you end up with! Self esteem and knowledge go hand in hand.

Along the way one teenage girl who was taking a break from snowboarding asked me if I was “crazy” for doing it, so I informed her that I was healthy for doing it. One guy who was sitting with his friend trying to encourage him to continue boarding on down the mountain said to him at least he wasn’t hiking like this gal!

Admitting you have a problem is the first step in helping yourself and allowing others to do so as well. When my cry for help came, I was exhausted to the point that even thinking about the solution was tiring for me. But let’s start from the beginning.

I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve looked back at decisions I’ve made, often the frightening or difficult ones, and had an incredible amount of gratitude wash over me. Gratefulness for that one person who had the guts to take a leap; my past self.