Tonight (and every night), just before you go to sleep think of three good things that happened today. What role did you have in making them happen? What made them good? Is there a lesson for you in these three good things that happened?

There is scientific evidence that this exercise will probably make you feel happier in your life. Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania is an expert in what he calls “Positive Pschology” and has a great website called Authentic Happiness.

Seligman defines happiness as: “(a) positive emotion and pleasure (the pleasant life); (b) engagement (the engaged life); and (c) meaning (the meaningful life).” His research suggests “that people reliably differ according to the type of life that they pursue and, further, that the most satisfied people are those who orient their pursuits toward all three, with the greatest weight carried by engagement and meaning.”

Using online surveys, Seligman is building a body of evidence that your experience in life is not necessarily the result of events and circumstances rather it is the result of your thoughts about your circumstances. Change your thoughts, you change your experience.

Selgman suggests another useful exercise to increase a person’s overall happiness is to take an inventory of your character strengths (he’s got a 24 question inventory on his web site) and to use one of strengths in a new and different way every day for one week. In other words, pay attention to what you are good at. As I’ve often said, what you focus on is what grows (what you resist persists and what you embrace transforms).

Remember, you deserve happiness beyond all measure. Everyone does.