Frequently asked questions

What it is

Happiness Play is a personal platform for managing your happiness, not for measuring it. Happiness is not measured: it is managed. And it is managed with concrete decisions, not with a score.

Inside the platform you go through three steps, at your own pace:

• How I am. You draw your Wheel of Life and rate the eight areas from 0 to 10, one by one.
• What I want. You put a name to the conditions (factors, in the language of the method) that you need or would like to have in each area.
• What I am going to change. You choose concrete changes, each with its date and with a reward you give yourself when you complete them.

You also keep your long-term vision in «In the future I see myself...» and you can download a summary of all your work. What you write stays saved, and you pick it up again whenever you want.

What it gives you

In two words: order and perspective. Seeing at a glance how you are, putting a name to what you want, and coming out with a concrete commitment instead of a vague feeling.

And you do not start from scratch. The catalogue of the method suggests more than 80,000 options to inspire you, and if yours is not there, you write it in your own words.

Who it is for

For anyone who wants to stop and look at their life with some order. You do not need to know anything, or to have anything worked out, or to have read any book.

Nobody here tells you what is good or bad for you: you rate, you choose, you decide. When you finish you will be much clearer about what matters to you. You will also know whether you prefer to work on it on your own or with professional support.

Personal use is free. We explain it in the question «How much does it cost?».

And if you prefer to see it before starting, there is the Happiness Play tutorial.

The journey has three steps, always in the same order. You can do it in one go or come back whenever you want: your work stays saved.

1. How I am

You start with the Wheel of Life: a snapshot of how you are today. You rate each of the eight areas from 0 to 10, in the order in which they appear on the screen of the first step: love; leisure; home; health; personal growth; money; professional development; family and friends.

Each area is read separately. The eight are never added up and never averaged. Below each area there is an optional sub-wheel, for when you want to go into detail.

We explain it in the question «What is the Wheel of Life, what is it for and how often do I do it?», and area by area in «What areas does the Wheel have and what number do I put in each one?». Why they are never averaged we explain in «Why is no average taken of my eight areas?».

If you want to practise it outside the platform too, the blog has the Wheel of Life templates and the Map of Life, as well as one Wheel per area:

• Wheel of love
• Wheel of leisure
• Wheel of home
• Wheel of health
• Wheel of personal growth
• Wheel of money
• Wheel of professional development
• Wheel of family and friends

2. What I want

Here you write your conditions, which the method calls factors: what you need or would like to have in each area in order to feel good. It is your wish list, without censoring yourself and without putting anything in order yet.

You have a catalogue of suggested options to inspire you and a free field to write yours in your own words. Then you mark which ones are already met today, you separate the necessary ones from the motivating ones, and you leave them ordered by priority.

We explain it in «What are conditions (or factors) and what types are there?» and in «How do I build and order my list of conditions?».

3. What I am going to change

The conditions that are not met today are where the changes come from: concrete actions that you commit to. Each change carries a commitment date and a reward you give yourself when you complete it. The catalogue proposes changes related to each condition, and you can also write your own.

We explain it in «What are changes and how do I build my list?». The reminder emails we explain in «How do I follow up on my changes and when does the reminder arrive?».

And there is more

You keep your Future Self in «In the future I see myself...», a vision of how you would like your life to be in ten or twenty years. And you can download a summary of all your work, to read it calmly or to show it to whoever you decide.

What coaching is and why this is not it

Coaching is a process between two people: one accompanies and the other decides and acts.

Happiness Play is not that. It is an earlier step and you take it on your own: you go through it yourself, at your own pace, to put in order how you are, what you want and what you are going to change. You do not need a coach to use it.

Autocoaching is the name of the method

Autocoaching is the name of the method behind the platform, and it does not consist of giving yourself coaching. What it does share with coaching is the underlying idea: you are the one who decides and the one who sets the changes in your life in motion.

You will also come across the term Variety Coaching. It is not a type of coaching: it is the catalogue that suggests conditions and changes to you. We explain it in «What is Variety Coaching?».

You do not need to know anything to start

You do not need to know about coaching, or to have read any book, or to prepare anything before you come in.

The platform guides you along: first you rate your Wheel, then you write what you want, and last you choose your changes. Each screen explains what to do, and the catalogue gives you options when you do not know where to begin.

The books exist and they are the historical origin of the method: the Wheel of Life, the sub-wheels and the Future Self come from them. They are the history of the project, not a requirement. We explain it in «Who is behind Happiness Play and which books is it based on?».

And if later on you work with a professional

The platform prepares, it does not replace anyone. If you decide to work with a professional, you arrive with the ground already covered: your Wheel rated, your conditions written and your changes set out. The conversation starts much further along.

Personal use of Happiness Play has no cost.

There is no paid feature and no way to pay in personal use. Nor is there a cut-down version waiting for you to pay: the Wheel, the sub-wheels, the catalogue of conditions and changes, the reminders and the downloadable summary are all available at no cost.

And since there is nothing to pay, no bank details are asked for at any point.

All the work built up since 2005 —the method, the Wheel, the sub-wheels and the catalogue— is available to anyone who wants to use it.

What happens to what you write and where your data is kept is a different matter, and it has an answer of its own: we explain it in the question «What happens to what I write here? Who sees it and can I delete it?».

Where your data is

The server is physically in Europe, in a data centre in France, and that is where the database is kept. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, the European rule that protects your data.

The website uses Google Analytics to measure visits.

What is stored and who sees it

Your Wheel, your conditions and your changes are yours. They are not published, not sold, not used to profile you and not used for advertising. There is no ranking and no comparison with other people. They are not shared with anyone unless you show them.

Your rights, in plain words

• Access: to know what is stored about you.
• Rectification: to correct whatever is wrong.
• Erasure: to ask for it to be deleted.
• Portability: to take what is yours with you.
• Objection: to object to a specific processing of your data.
• Restriction: to ask for that processing to be restricted while the matter is settled.

To that are added explicit consent —only what you authorise is processed— and minimisation: no data is asked for that is not needed. If you live in Mexico, the privacy policy also covers your ARCO rights.

Sharing is voluntary

By default nothing is published. You can download your summary and show it or send it to whoever you want, for example to a coach: that way you arrive at that conversation with the picture already taken. Many people go through the whole journey without showing it to anyone, and it works just the same.

The Wheel also has buttons for sharing it on a social network. They only do something if you click on them, and it is worth knowing this: when you use them, the content of your Wheel travels to that network and comes under its terms.

Cancelling your account and deleting what you wrote

These two are not the same thing, and here it is said precisely. In your profile you have the «Cancel my account» link: when you click on it you receive an email and, once you confirm it, your account is deactivated. Deactivating does not delete what you wrote.

To delete it, or to exercise any of the rights above, you write to admin@happinessplay.com, the contact address given in the privacy policy. And before you go you can download your summary and keep it.

What it is

The Wheel of Life is a snapshot of how you are today. It divides your life into eight areas and you rate each one from 0 to 10, according to how it feels to you at this moment.

Each area is read separately. The eight are never added up and never averaged, and we explain why in the question «Why is no average taken of my eight areas?».

It is not a test and it is not a score, and it is not compared with anyone else's. It is your perception today, and tomorrow it may be another one.

What it is for

To see the gap between some areas and others: what is going well, what is going more or less, and what you had not looked at for a long time. That distance is the useful information.

And above all to open the next step. The Wheel tells you where to look; the value is in what comes afterwards, when you put a name to your conditions and commit to concrete changes. Without that step, the Wheel stays a snapshot.

How often do I do it

Whenever you want. There is no obligatory frequency and no calendar to keep to.

The only rule is about dates: one Wheel per day is saved. If you do it twice on the same day, the second one replaces the first. That works to your advantage: if you were left in doubt about some number, you can do it again that same day without altering your history.

Coming back to it after having worked on your changes is where the movement shows, and it is always looked at area by area, never with a single number that sums everything up.

What you will not find are streaks, consistency counters or reproaches for the week you did not come in. The platform does not send you consistency reminders: the emails you receive are the ones for your changes and, if you selected it when you registered, the news.

The eight areas

There are eight and you rate them one by one, from 0 to 10. This is the order in which they appear in the Wheel of the first step:

• Love. How you are right now in your love life, whether you are looking for someone or you share your life with someone.
• Leisure. Here you do not rate how much free time you have, but the quality of the leisure you enjoy. You can have a lot of time and little enjoyment, and the other way around.
• Home. Your house and your surroundings: the place you live in, the neighbourhood, the city or town, the country, living with others.
• Health. How you feel in body and in mood in your everyday life: how you look after yourself and how you recover.
• Personal growth. Your projects, what you contribute, what you learn, your attitudes and your way of being in the world.
• Money. How you feel about the money you handle day to day: what comes in, what goes out, what you save, what you owe.
• Professional development. How you feel about the work or the jobs you do: the duties, the company, the people, the recognition, what you earn.
• Family and friends. Your close circles. If for you they are two different worlds, think of each one separately.

What number do I put

Whatever comes to you. The rating is subjective and there is no predefined scale behind it: nobody has decided what a 6 in health or a 9 in money means.

• From 0 to 10, according to how you feel today in that area.
• There is no right answer. This is not a test and there is no grade.
• Your 7 is not the 7 of another person. You compare yourself with yourself and with nobody else.
• Do not think about it too much: the first impression is usually the most honest one.
• If you were left in doubt, you can do it again the same day. Only one Wheel per day is saved, so the last one replaces the previous one.

What is looked at afterwards is not the number itself, but the gap between some areas and others.

And behind each area there is a sub-wheel that breaks it down into concrete sections, for when you want to go into detail. We explain it in «What are the sub-wheels and the Map of Life?».

For two reasons. The second one is the important one.

1. The scale is yours

When you rate each area from 0 to 10, that scale is yours, personal and not transferable. There is no preset scale and no outside definition of what a 7 is worth: your 7 is not the 7 of another person, because you are not rating the same thing. Numbers that do not mean the same thing cannot be added up or averaged.

2. The average erases the useful information

Even if it could be done, it would not help. Imagine that you give one area a 9 and another one a 3: the average would say «six», and that six does not exist in your life. What does exist is the distance between that 9 and that 3. That distance is exactly what tells you where to start, and taking an average erases it.

What this means in here

• There is no overall score for your happiness.
• There is no ranking and no comparison with other people.
• There are no profiles by age, sex or country.
• Each area is shown separately, with its colour and its number.

There is no good or bad result either. This is not a test and it is not an evaluation: it is a picture taken by you and for you, and it is there to help you decide where you want to start.

Happiness is not measured, it is managed.

The Wheel's eight areas are the overall view. Underneath each area there is a breakdown into concrete things, and that is what the sub-wheels are.

Eight sub-wheels, 58 sections

There is one sub-wheel per area, that is, eight in all. Each sub-wheel opens up into its own sections: between six and eight per area, 58 in all.

Instead of a single number for a whole area, you rate concrete things one by one: recognition, pay, the neighbourhood, living together.

They sit inside step 1, right after you rate the Wheel, and they are optional. You can go into detail only in the areas that interest you.

Drawn with arcs, not with straight lines

Each sub-wheel is a wheel of slices with arcs, not a radar of straight lines. Each slice grows or stays short according to what you entered, so the imbalance shows at a glance, with no figures to read.

The Map of Life

It is the joined-up view: your wheel of eight areas in the centre and, around it, the detail of the 58 sections. All of it at once, with nothing reduced to a single number. You will find it in your summary.

The Wheel tells you which area you are worst in. The map tells you which specific section is pulling you down and which one is holding you up. With that you choose your conditions (the method calls them factors) and your changes far better.

Where it comes from

It was born in the book Autocoaching para despertar (“Autocoaching to awaken”, 2010, reissued in 2013), where it was presented as the Global Map of Life with 58 territories.

You can go deeper into the idea on the blog, in how to make the map of your life.

The 15 quantifiers

Alongside the sections, the catalogue works with 15 quantifiers: reusable sets of nuances that help you fine-tune a wish of your own —how much, how often, to what degree— without multiplying the options.

The usual rule applies here: nothing is averaged and nothing is compared. The full breakdown, section by section, is covered in «What does each area of the Wheel break down into?».

You may well be right. And even so, going into the detail is usually useful.

We often point to one particular area out of habit, because it is the answer we have at hand. And a single rating for a whole area is far too general. It is not enough to see where the problem is.

The case of work

The Professional development area has eight sections: capacity for work, duties, company, boss, colleagues, subordinates, recognition and pay.

It is common to say «I am doing badly at work» and then discover, once you rate them one by one, that the duties are fine and that what is very low is recognition.

And that changes what you will do next

If the duties were what was failing, the logical move would be to look at another job. If what is missing is recognition, the conditions you choose and the changes you set yourself are completely different. Many of them do not even involve changing jobs.

Yes, you can work on that area here too

Work is one of the Wheel's eight areas and it works like the rest: you rate it, you choose its conditions and you set yourself your changes.

What you write is yours and is not shared unless you show it.

Nobody corrects you or puts labels on you here. We only suggest looking more closely before you decide. If afterwards you still think the same, you will have chosen with more information.

The breakdown of the eight areas is covered in «What does each area of the Wheel break down into?».

Each area of the Wheel opens up into its own sub-wheel, and each sub-wheel has its sections. Between the eight of them they add up to 58.

You will find this inside step 1: once you finish the Wheel you can open the breakdown of whichever area you want. This is the full list, in the same order in which you see the areas on the Wheel.

• Love (8): this area looks at your love life just as you live it today, without taking any particular way of living it as the right one. Its sections are number of relationships, duration, frequency, communication and living together, faithfulness, sexual passion, romantic passion and the capacity to love.
• Leisure (6): free time, making the most of it, fun, receptive, active and participative.
• Home (6): care of the home, country, city or town, neighbourhood, home and living together.
• Health (6): how your mood is, how you look after your mood, how you take care of yourself, how you are physically, what your physical habits are like and how you recover.
• Personal growth (8): contribution to society, current projects, future projects, spirituality, effort and self-esteem, attitudes, skills and knowledge.
• Money (8): belongings, guarantees, income, future income, expenses, future expenses, debts and savings.
• Professional development (8): capacity for work, duties, company, boss, colleagues, subordinates, recognition and pay.
• Family and friends (8): capacity to give, mother, father, children, close relatives, friends, acquaintances and people you greet.

The count adds up

Five areas open into eight sections and three into six: 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 58.

How each section is rated

Each section is rated separately, from 0 to 10, on your own scale. They are not added up, they are not averaged and they are not compared with anyone else's. They are there for you to see the detail, not to give a mark.

What the sub-wheels are and where they come from is covered in «What are the sub-wheels and the Map of Life?». What going down to this level is for is covered in «I think my problem is work. Why go into the detail?».

First, the vocabulary bridge: on the platform they are called conditions and in the method, factors. They are the same thing, so if you see both terms, do not let it confuse you.

What a condition is

It is what you need —a necessary condition— or what you would like to have —a motivating condition— in each area in order to feel good.

They go into the detail of your life, not into big words. For example: sleeping well on weekdays, having an afternoon free for myself, having natural light come into the house, a job where I learn something, reaching the end of the month without a struggle.

What do you gain by writing them down? Realising what you want and what you do not. Once what you want is written down, it stops being a vague feeling and can be worked on.

The two types

On the screen you drag them into one column or the other, Necessary and Motivating, and that is how you separate what is essential from what adds.

• Necessary. What is essential for you in that area. When it is missing, it weighs on your day to day even if everything else is going well.
• Motivating. What adds and excites you, but is not essential. If it is there, all the better; if it is not, your life still works.

The same condition can be necessary for you and motivating for the person next to you. There is no correct list: you are the one who classifies it, and you change it whenever you want.

Where this distinction comes from

From the hygiene and motivator factors of Frederick Herzberg, a professor and consultant from the United States. He formulated them to explain how people behave at work: there are things that weigh when they are missing, and others that drive you forward when they are there.

The method takes that idea and carries it over to the eight areas of life, not only the professional one.

Classifying is not giving you a mark or measuring anything. It is putting things in order, so you know where it makes sense to start.

In the «What I want in my life» step you do two things, in this order.

1. Add

You write down everything that contributes to your life being the way you like it, area by area. You have the catalogue to draw inspiration from and a free field to say it in your own words.

Nothing is filtered here: it is worth opening the list up before trimming it. Two pieces of advice that help:

• Do not separate the necessary from the motivating yet. Doing it too early leads you to discard things without thinking them through.
• Do not write down only what you are missing. Write down as well what is already met and you want to keep: it is part of your ideal picture and it changes the whole photo.

2. Classify and order

You mark what is met today and what is not. You drag each condition to Necessary or to Motivating. And you leave what weighs most at the top.

Why prioritise? Because you cannot do everything at once. Besides, seeing your own list in order usually shows you something you did not know you thought. It is not a ranking or a mark: it is your order, and you change it whenever you want.

Where do I start?

With the areas you rated lowest on your Wheel, or with the one that interests you now. There is no compulsory order.

Always area by area, never by an average of the eight.

If yours does not appear in the catalogue, you write it in your own words. It is covered in «Where do the suggested options come from? And what if mine is not there?».

With this you already have what the next step needs: the conditions that are not met today are the raw material for your changes.

Nothing bad happens. It is information, and the most useful information in the whole journey.

That gesture —marking what is met and what is not— is what sets the method in motion. What is not met today —above all if it is a necessary condition, the kind that weighs when it is missing— is exactly where a change can appear.

Having a lot of them says nothing about you

It is normal to come out of this step with more outstanding conditions than you expected. That says nothing about you: it says you were really looking.

It is material to work with, not a list of reproaches. Nothing you write is judged here.

The next step comes out of this

In the «What I am going to change» step, the platform starts precisely from those unmet conditions to suggest concrete changes to you, with their date and their reward.

It is covered in «What are changes and how do I build my list?».

It is the catalogue of options behind Happiness Play, and it is what makes this platform different.

Like the catalogue of a travel agency

It shows you possible destinations so that you discover which one you want. It does not tell you where to go, it does not prescribe, it does not classify you and it does not decide for you.

What it offers is variety, which is exactly what is missing when you go blank in front of the question «and what do I want?».

The options are linked to each other

The factors (the conditions) and the changes are not two loose lists: they are linked. When you choose a condition, the catalogue suggests the changes linked to it.

That network of relationships is what allows different paths, instead of a single recipe.

Today it brings together more than 80,000 options and more than 20,000 changes. Exactly how many there are and how it got there is covered in «How was the catalogue built?».

It is alive

The suggestions people send in are reviewed one by one, to decide whether it makes sense to add them to the catalogue or whether they are a personal preference that stays in that person's own record.

Are conditions the same for everybody?

No. They are personal and never generalizable by race, religion or sex. What is essential for you may be irrelevant for the person next to you, and the other way round.

That is why nothing is compared here. Your conditions are not set against anybody else's, there is no ranking, there is no profile and you are not even shown what other people choose.

And if yours does not appear, you write it in your own words. It is covered in «Where do the suggested options come from? And what if mine is not there?».

With years of field work before a single line of code was written.

The research

The starting point was a year of focus groups devoted to breaking happiness down into 58 areas. In total there were more than 500 hours of focus groups with around 90 participants from more than 15 countries.

Out of that came the initial base: 615 factors and 750 changes.

From the research to the catalogue

Turning that into a usable catalogue took around 1,420 hours of development, covering more than 300 requirements: some 1,100 hours generating factors and some 290 generating changes.

Today the catalogue holds 83,672 factors and 21,915 changes. It keeps growing, so these figures fall short as time goes by.

Why so much work

So that the options are not written with only one kind of person in mind. That variety of cultures, ages and countries is what allows very different people to find options that sound like their own life.

What it is not

It is not a test, it is not a scientific study and it is not a database of profiles. It is a catalogue of suggested options: you choose, and nothing you choose classifies you or compares you with anyone.

What the catalogue is exactly and how you use it is covered in «What is Variety Coaching?».

The options come from the catalogue, and they don't show up at random.

Where they come from

Every condition in the catalogue (the method calls them factors) has changes linked to it. When you ask for suggestions for one particular condition, the platform shows you the changes linked to that condition, not a general list. That web of relationships is what makes «I want to sleep better» open up different paths instead of a single formula.

And that is exactly what they are: suggestions, not formulas. You can take one as it is, adapt it to your life, or ignore them all and write your own. The decision is always yours.

The catalogue holds tens of thousands of options, and behind it there are years of research. How many there are and how they were built is covered in «How was the catalogue built?».

And if yours isn't there

You write it in your own words in the free field, and it is saved with exactly the same importance as anything that came ready-made.

If an option comes close but isn't quite yours, you fine-tune it with the free qualifier: that way it keeps the shape it has in your life, and not the generic shape of the catalogue.

Even so, it is worth looking first. Very often the option is already there, only worded differently, and much of the value lies in finding the exact way to say something you had been turning over for a long time.

And if it doesn't appear, that says nothing about you either. There is no list of correct wishes and no catalogue of approved lives: this is not a test, and what you write counts exactly the same as the options in the catalogue.

What a change is

A change is a specific action you commit to. Not a general intention, but something you can start and about which, when the day comes, you can say whether you did it or not.

Yours come from the conditions that are not met today, starting with the necessary ones. That is why the previous step matters so much: the raw material is there.

How you build them, on screen

For each condition you click on «Suggest a change» and you go through options until one fits. If you prefer to say it in your own words, you write the change directly.

When you choose one, you give it its commitment date and the reward you give yourself when you complete it. What is worth writing in each of those fields is covered in «What does a well-planned change include?».

Where the suggestions come from is covered in «Where do the suggested options come from? And what if mine isn't there?».

How you order them

You place them from most to least important, by dragging them. Ordering them serves something very practical: knowing where to start, because you can't do everything at once. It is not a ranking and it is not a grade; it is your order, and you change it whenever you want.

A practical tip: few and small changes work better than many and large ones. One completed change moves you more than five left pending.

Like conditions, changes are personal and never generalizable by race, religion or sex. Nobody tells you which ones to set, and yours are not compared with anyone else's.

What happens from the date you set is covered in «How do I follow up on my changes and when does the reminder arrive?».

The platform asks you for three things. The method adds two more, even though they are not fields in the form.

Description

Word it so that you can check whether you did it. «Walk for thirty minutes three days a week» works; «take better care of myself» does not, because when the day comes you won't know the answer.

Commitment date

The day by which you commit to having it done. Choose a realistic date: a date you can keep works better than an ambitious one.

Reward

What you give yourself when you achieve it: a dinner out, an afternoon for yourself, a trip. Choose something you genuinely enjoy. It is the part almost everyone skips, and it is the one that closes the circle.

Scenarios or options

The different ways of getting there. There are usually several paths, and thinking them through beforehand lets you see the obstacles that may come up and the support you can count on.

Your own reminders

Whatever reminds you day to day: a note on the fridge, an alarm on your phone, an appointment in your calendar.

The platform writes to you as well, but it helps to know when: the email about your change arrives the day after the date you committed to. It is covered in «How do I follow up on my changes and when does the reminder arrive?».

When the reminder arrives

The email about your change arrives the day after the date you committed to. It is the review of what came due yesterday: it reaches you when you can already answer whether you did it or not, so the commitment doesn't stay forgotten in a corner.

The full cycle

• You set your change with its date and its reward.
• The day after that date the email reaches you, at the address you use to sign in to your account.
• You sign in and mark whether you did it.
• If you did, the change is marked as done (it is not deleted). Collect your reward.
• If you didn't, nothing bad happens: maybe it wasn't the right change, or it wasn't the right moment. You give it a new date, you reword it, or you replace it with another one that comes closer to what you need.
• And every now and then you go back to the Wheel and rate your eight areas again. That is where the movement shows, area by area and comparing yourself with yourself.

What emails the platform sends

The ones about your changes and, if you checked that box when you registered, the news updates. Then there are the account ones: the confirmation when you sign up and the one when you cancel your account.

What helps this work

Very little, and nothing to do with willpower: small, specific changes that fit into your week, dates you can keep, and visits to the Wheel every now and then.

There are no streaks to keep up and nothing breaks if you go a month without signing in. And a change you didn't complete is not a failure: it is information. You give it another date, you swap it for a different one, and you carry on.

What My Future Self is

My Future Self is what you aspire to in the long term, with a horizon of some ten or twenty years. In the platform you write it in «In the future I see myself...».

How to write it

In several paragraphs, and as specific as you can. Stay away from generalities: «I want to be happy», «I want to have money» or «I want to be healthy» say nothing and lead nowhere. Go into the detail: where you live, who with, what you spend your mornings on, what you have stopped doing, what you have learned.

There are no compulsory deadlines and no correct way of writing it. Nobody judges what you put there: it is yours and it is not compared with anyone else's.

What it is for

It is the compass that gives your changes their meaning. When you doubt whether a change deserves your time, read it again: if it brings you closer to that future, you already have the answer.

Where the method leads

In the short term, awareness. Becoming aware of how you are in each area, of what you need and of what motivates you. It is self-knowledge in a very practical sense: putting in writing what until now was only a feeling.

In the long term, the changes. The specific actions that bring you closer to what you want, and that are best kept in harmony with your Future Self.

At no point is this about «achieving happiness», as if it were a goal you reach and then finish with. It is about managing it: looking, deciding, committing and looking again.

The five principles

• Happiness is not measured, it is managed. There is no happiness index here: there are decisions and commitments.
• The eight areas are never averaged. An average would hide the imbalance, which is exactly what needs to be seen. Each area is read on its own.
• You compare yourself with yourself and with nobody else. There is no ranking, no profile, no sorting of people.
• The catalogue offers options, it does not prescribe. It shows you possibilities so that you can choose; it never tells you what you should want.
• The texts support you, they do not judge. You are not going to read here that you are doing it wrong.

Where it comes from

From putting coaching through a process of reengineering. The work starts in 2005, with Pedro Amador, from one very specific question: how to bring into everyday life, in an orderly way, what until then only happened in a session with a professional.

Out of that come three pieces that still hold the method up:

• Ontological coaching, which is where the idea comes from that every person already has the resources they need to reach their goals.
• Lateral thinking, which is where the way of generating options instead of giving one single answer comes from.
• Herzberg's factors, which is where the distinction between necessary and motivating conditions comes from. It is covered in «What are conditions (or factors) and what types are there?».

Out of the union of those three pieces comes Variety Coaching, the catalogue of options that today suggests conditions and changes to you. It is covered in «What is Variety Coaching?».

First of all: you don't need to read any book to use the platform. The books and the website were made to work separately.

A project made by many people

The methodology comes out of Pedro Amador's work, but the platform you are using was not made by one person. Development and systems teams, psychologists, sales people, distributors, advisors and beta testers have all passed through the project, along with the ninety people who took part in the research and the publishers who brought the books out in three languages.

The names and their roles are in About Happiness Play, where they are published as each person's current involvement is confirmed with them.

Pedro Amador

The method was born in 2005 out of his work, and from there come the Wheel of Life, the sub-wheels, the catalogue of conditions and changes, and the books that document it.

He is also an international speaker: his talks and training sessions go through the same method that lies behind the platform.

His intention was easy to state and hard to achieve: to systematise the principles of coaching and bring them close to everyday life. The point was that anyone could walk the path on their own, without depending on a session or on an intermediary. That is what the platform still is today.

The three books

«Autocoaching: cómo conseguir lo mejor de uno mismo» (roughly, Autocoaching: how to get the best out of yourself; registered in 2005, published in 2008). It is the origin. This is where the Wheel of Life with eight areas comes from, and this is also where the tone of the whole platform comes from: its own pages state that it would never be a book for judging.

«Autocoaching para despertar» (roughly, Autocoaching to awaken; 2010, reissued in 2013). This is where the Global Map of Life with 58 territories is born, literally today's sub-wheels and Map of Life.

«ConseguirLaFelicidad.COM: Autocoaching en la práctica» (roughly, ConseguirLaFelicidad.COM: Autocoaching in practice; 2011). A free book-blog, with more than 170,000 readers, available at conseguirlafelicidad.com. Its table of contents is the direct forerunner of the platform's three steps: how I am, what I want, what I am going to change.

The first two can be bought in digital format on Pedro Amador's books page. The third one is free.

Happiness Play was born in 2005 and has been through quite a few stages. This is the timeline, with the recognition from outside as its highest point.

• 2005. The method is born and the first book is registered, with the Wheel of Life of eight areas.
• 2008. That first book is published.
• 2010. Second book, reissued in 2013, with the 58 territories that are the origin of the sub-wheels.
• 2011. Third book, a free book-blog with more than 170,000 readers. And finalist in the European Venture Contest (Pamplona) and in the European Venture Summit (Düsseldorf).
• 2012. Support from ENISA, Government of Spain (30,000 euros).
• 2016. Finalist in Dubai Future Accelerator, in the Alibaba Cloud Startup Contest and in SME Beyond Borders «Pitch, please!» (Dubai).
• 2017. Finalist or runner-up in Arabnet Startup Battle, Get In the Ring (Abu Dhabi) and STEP (Dubai). And winner of the TOP 50 of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and of the WADI / STOP50 accelerator (Muscat, Oman).

2022: the most relevant recognition

Happiness Play was nominated for the World Happiness Awards 2022 for its happiness technology. The announcement was made public on 12 September 2022.

2026

Personal use is free. It is covered in «How much does it cost?».

The detail of the track record is in Happiness Play awards and nominations.