When my nephew was four years old, he once walked into his grandparent’s home with his family and stated profoundly: “This place remembers me.”  It put a smile on the face of us all.

            I recently made a memorable trip “back home” for a reunion with my high school classmates, friends and family.  It was such a joy to visit with them again and exchange stories of school, church and community. The stories we told of the best and worst times of our high school years reinforced the pleasant memories we had all experienced. Family drew us closer together as we visited the different towns where they all lived, and even stopped for a quiet moment at the cemetery where many of my relatives are buried. We all smiled at something shared about a loved one.

            Friendship and loving relatives can give us living joy and lasting memories, even at the family grave-site. Community, school and church can help us form our character strengths, values and goals and prepare us for how we will live our lives.

            It is important to consider the meaning of your own life. One way to think about your future is to ask yourself and answer the question: “How do I want to be remembered?”  Think about what you want people to share about you and your life when you visit with family and friends through the years.

            In the Authentic Happiness Coaching Vanguard Program led by Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman, the Father of Positive Psychology, one of the exercises was to write your own obituary.  In the Mentor Coach Small Business Coaching class, led by Anne Durand, MCC, CEO and Director of Training, she asks the question of the entrepreneur, manager, or technician participant: “How do you want to be remembered when you reach eighty years of age?”  Graduates of each program experienced the importance of looking ahead as to how their lives might be in the future. How they would like to be remembered became an important focus in the planning for their future lives.

            This is so valuable for families, schools, communities and businesses to consider. Research shows the use of a person’s Signature Strengths increases health and happiness in relationships and careers, with lifetime benefits. Positive emotion, identifying the best in ourselves and others, and actions that “other people matter”, in the words of Dr. Christopher Peterson, Univ. of Michigan, can add meaning to lives. 

            Business prospers with a good product and customer service. People return to a place that has produced good memories. That’s good for the business and good for the customer. Most people don’t return to a business that leaves them with a negative experience, such as a poorly made product or miserable customer service. How do you want customers to talk about your business?  Good memories can help give your business staying power so you can prosper.

            Families, schools and communities flourish when they nurture the good in others. Negative situations do arise and where they are handled wisely for the protection and nurturing of all concerned, the outcome can be positive and growth producing.  If the situation is unavoidable, positive strengths can best handle the problem.

            To help you think in terms of your Signature Strengths and those of the people in your environment, there visit the website: www.authentichappiness.com where you can take the Values in Action (VIA) for free. In less than one hour you can know them, and all 24 of the strengths or routes to virtues, plus other tests of happiness, grit, etc.

            These can help you increase your positive emotions and gain so many healthful benefits. You can even test your happiness level before and after you make conscious efforts to use your Signature Strengths in different ways and more often. You can help create happy memories for yourself and others while doing your part toward making the world a better place for its inhabitants.