'What can I do to be happy?' Is an important question for a lot of us. We sometimes succumb to the temptation of comparing ourselves to 'happy people' and then task those close to us with the difficult job of filling our lives with happiness.
In no particular order, here is a system of five simple steps that really helps no matter who you are and the walks of life you are in.
1. You Have To Own Your Own Happiness
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| Artist: Joep Buijs |
Own your own happiness and be responsible for normal things that bring joy into your own heart independently of life, people, money and all that stuff which do not necessarily give you happiness.Take the responsibility, take it away from things or other people and don't demand that they make you happy. Moreover, nobody can give you sustained happiness; your kids are not going to make you happy, your spouse is not going to make you happy, your big house is not going to make you happy. You have to take responsibility of that peace and joy that lives inside of your heart and not inside of your stuff.
2. Smile!
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| Photo: bradoilpainting.com |
3. The second thing that people need to do is to challenge their own story;
Because people torment themselves by how they see their life. Challenge your own story, change the way you talk to yourself about who you are, what happened to you and what you are going to do with your life, you wrote the script change the story, change the dialogue.
4. Enjoy the journey, not the destination.
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| Photo: christopherclark.com |
A lot of us delay our happiness; we say, "when I get to this level"; "when I get my degree", "when I get the kids", "when I get married I am going to be happy". Rather, enjoy the journey, enjoy the whole step, the whole process. Every day when you get up to strive for whatever it is you are after, but do not cerebrate only when you get to the finish line, cerebrate all along the way. Enjoying the journey is just releasing that there is joy in the process.
5. If you don't see yourself as valuable nobody else will.
Make your relationship count, because everything is about relationship. First of all you relationship with God, it is a very important thing to have, because as long as you know there is somebody in charge you don't have to bare the rod of responsibility or the weight of what is going on in your life because you can always talk to the boss.
Enjoy the relationship with yourself, because if you don't like yourself it makes difficult for someone else to like you. Enjoy the relationship with your kids, with your spouse, with your friends. Take your time to enjoy these relationships because nature teaches us that there is no fruit without relationships; you cannot be fruitful by yourself, in business, in home, in life, in church, you are no more than the relationship you surround yourself with and make sure that those relationships are good ones.
6. Balance work with play.
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| Photo: kidzworld.com |
If you work really hard and you are a diligent person make sure you play to balance your life out, if you play really hard and you don't work really much it will be fun but you will be hungry. Balance work with play; you have to balance that with your children if you always a disciplinarian. Balancing work with play causes not only for you to be holistic but it enables people to get better perspective of who you are.
7. Let it go
Let all the bitterness and resentment go.
Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder...
— Henry David Thoreau
Sources:
T. B. Jakes
TED talks
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