1. Ideal circumtances.
The happiest people do not live
with a certain set of
circumstances, but rather with a
certain set of attitudes.
Choosing to be positive and grateful for what you have now
is going to determine how
you’re going to live the rest of
your life. So look for something
positive about today. Even if you
have to look a little harder than usual, it still exists. Ultimately, your greatest
achievements are moments in
time when what you’re doing
allows you to see how
wonderful your life already is.



2. Everyone’s approval.
The biggest prison you will likely
ever live in is your fear of what
other people think. You cannot let other people tell
you who you are or what you
want. You have to decide that
for yourself. When you’re
making big decisions,
remember, what you think of yourself and your life is more
important than what people
think of you. Don’t let others
make you feel guilty for living
your life. It’s YOUR life. As long
as you’re not hurting anyone else, live it YOUR way. Fulfillment and success in life lie
in your ability to use your entire
mind to achieve your goals,
dreams and desires. Take
sufficient time to spend with
yourself, without external interference. You’re worth it.
(Angel and I discuss this in
more detail in the “Self-Love”
chapter of 1,000 Little Things
Happy, Successful People Do
Differently.)



3. A perfect past.
Do not let the shadows of your
past darken the doorstep of
your present and future. Let go,
forgive and move forward. Just
because the past didn’t turn out like you had hoped, doesn’t
mean your future can’t be
better than you had envisioned.
In fact, we often grow stronger
in the places we were once
broken. Because it’s not until you’re broken for a while that
you truly learn what you’re
made of on the inside. And this
insight gives you the ability to
rebuild yourself, stronger than
ever before. Most of the time the only
difference between long-term
happiness and long-term
despair is not quitting on
yourself. As long as you are
breathing it’s never too late. Today is a new beginning.



4. Full control of life’s constant
changes.
Life is constantly changing and
we’re changing with it. We’re
not the same person we were a
year ago, a month ago, or a week ago. Life’s cycle doesn’t
stop. Change is what it’s all
about. But every ending is the
beginning of something else.
Every exit is an entry
somewhere else. Live, learn, and let go. Don’t hold yourself
down with the changes you
can’t control. Although some forces are out of
your control, you can control
how you react to things.
Everyone’s life has positive and
negative aspects – whether
you’re happy or not depends greatly on which aspects you
focus on. The best thing you can
do is to let go of what you can’t
control, and invest your energy
in the things you can. Live
simply, love generously, speak truthfully, breathe deeply, do
your best, and leave the rest to
the powers above you. (Read
The Road Less Traveled.)




5. A carefree, stress-free life.
Great challenges make life
interesting; overcoming them
makes life meaningful. Don’t
wait until everything is just
right; it will never be perfect. There will always be challenges,
obstacles and less than perfect
conditions. So what! Get started
now! With each step you take,
you will grow stronger and
stronger, more skilled, more confident, and more successful. Say it: “I am determined to live
a happy life no matter my
challenges! I will turn all my
tales of fury into tales of glory! I
will turn all of my tales of woe
into tales of WOW!” And no matter what happens, just do
your best and appreciate what
you’re learning. You won’t enjoy
your life if you don’t enjoy your
challenges.



6. All the things you don’t have.
You are right here, right now,
with what you have, breathing.
Enjoy it. You’ve got nothing to
do today except to smile. Happiness is valuing what you
have, and enjoying the people,
places, objects and events in
your life for what they are. It’s
not about changing and
achieving all the time; sometimes it’s about being and
appreciating. And you can
nearly always enjoy the things
you have and the events
happening around you if you
make up your mind firmly that you will.


7. A mountain of money.
If we counted our blessings
more often, instead of our
money, we would be a lot richer.
Keep money on your mind but
out of your heart. Never get so busy making a living that you
forget to make a life for
yourself. Cultivate your spiritual
growth. The real measure of
your wealth is how much you’d
be worth if you lost all your money. Happiness formula = Do your
best and appreciate what you
have.
Unhappiness formula = Compare
yourself to others and the things
they have.It’s nice to have money and the things that
money can buy, but it’s also
important to make sure you
haven’t lost track of the things
that money can’t buy. You don’t
need a lot of money to lead a rich life. Good friends and a
loving family are worth their
weight in gold. It really is the
little things that mean the
most… like a long hug at just
the right time. (Read The Happiness Project.)


8. Any event happening in
another time and place.
Make your time count. Do not
wish your moments away. Do
not ruin today by focusing on
another time and place. There is only now; realize how rich you
are in it. Right now you are creating
history – your legacy. Don’t let
life slip by without being aware
of it. Life works in a strange
way: You want something and
you work and wait and work and wait, and feel like it’s
taking forever to come. Then it
happens and it’s over and all you
want to do is relive all the great
memories you made along the
way. Happiness is the journey. Open
your eyes. Don’t miss it.


9. Constant happiness.
The bottom line is that you can’t
be happy unless you’re unhappy
sometimes. Life is not always
perfect, and the utopian world
of constant happiness in not natural, nor should you expect
it. In the short-term, your mood
will fluctuate, but it is your
ability to realize and deal with
these fluctuations that allows
you to maintain long-term
happiness. Any fool can be happy when times are good. It
takes a strong soul with real
heart to develop smiles out of
situations that make most
people weep. But it is possible. Live every day of your life in full.
Experience the highs and the
lows, the positives and the
negatives, and all the moods
present between the various
extremes. Don’t focus on simply being happy. Focus on living a
well-rounded, seasoned life.
Focus on achieving
completeness. Yes, happiness is
part of this completeness, but
so is sadness, difficulty, frustration, and failure. And
overcoming these latter points
supports your personal growth
far more than constant
happiness. Next steps…
Choose happiness today by
taking life moment by moment,
complaining very little, and
being thankful for the little
things that mean a lot. Your turn…
What would you add to the list?
What do we sometimes forget
we do NOT need to be happy?
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