Finding Happiness – Self Improvement

If most people are completely honest, they will tell you there is at least some area in their life that they want to improve. Everyone wants to be happy and most people spend endless hours pursuing happiness.

Do you find yourself constantly looking for happiness or trying hard to be happy? Have you ever asked someone who is happy what their secret is? Most happy people are willing and even eager to share what makes them truly happy. Talking to someone who is happy can really help you move towards finding your own happiness. It won’t be exactly the same for everyone but, in general, happiness comes from being content with what you have and open to what may come your way. Happiness comes from getting to a positive place where you can say “If I die today, I have no regrets.” If you have regrets, now is the time to fix them if you can and let go of them if you cannot fix them.

Have you heard the expression “take time to smell the roses”? Or “count your blessings”? These expressions mean to take time for yourself. Take a few minutes everyday just to enjoy life. Maybe you can listen to soft music and remember a time when you were truly happy. Focus a few minutes on a happy thought or memory each day and soon you will feel happy. You’ll start to see the world as a happier place. You’ll view things more positively. Your glass will always be half full and never half empty.

On the other side of this is too happy. If you are always happy, you might get too comfortable and complacent. when this happens, you may find you never want thing to change which in turn means you won’t take chances and grow. You could hold the key to curing cancer but because you are so happy, you never share your thoughts and that cure is never discovered. Or maybe you are suppose to discover a way to stop global warming but in your comfortable happiness, you never complete the thought and we never solve global warming. If we had been content with plowing our fields with horses, Henry Ford wouldn’t have thought of the tractor. So with our happiness we must make sure we don’t become complacent and miss the next great thing waiting for us.

As we get older, we become happier. Why? As youth, we need energy to make things happen in terms of productivity, creativity, invention and entrepreneurship. So frustration, anger, and restlessness about life fuels us on. If you are young, under 40, you have something wonderful to look forward to; being happier. If you are over 40, you can be already there; enjoying happiness.

There are three basic things you need for happiness.

1. A feeling of true safety. Not just from bodily harm but from financial harm.

2. A sense of perspective. Are you always seeing how your life is lacking? do you try to “keep up with the Jones”? Focus on you and your accomplishments. Know your limitations, your strengths, your real desires and let the “Jones” find what makes them happy.

3. A quietude. Peace deep in your soul can bring a shower of happiness. If you are focusing a set amount of time in quiet, your soul can rest and rejuvenate. Only quiet can bring peace.

* These three things are essential for reaching your goal of happiness. You can’t make potato soup without potatoes, but your neighbor may add bacon to theirs where you prefer cheese.