The world needs more happy people. Hard to argue with that, isn’t it? Just listen to the news or look around in traffic or at the store to appreciate how true it is. It seems like it should be simple. But it’s easy to be confused when we think about happiness. So, let’s talk about what doesn’t necessarily make us happy and some ideas that may help us learn how to be happy today.
How to Be Happy: What We Think Will Make Us Happy
Many think that being happy is contingent on achieving a goal or reaching a milestone. We may believe we’ll be happy if we find a true love, make more money, or buy a home. Or we may think we’ll be happy after we get a promotion, lose weight, become healthy, master a skill or retire. Maybe we think we’ll feel happier when we acquire a new car, in an effort to keep up with our peers or neighbors.
But scientists have shown that these things really don’t make us very happy at all.
Achieving goals does bring us pleasure, but we tend to overestimate how happy we will be afterward.
The boost to happiness we experience is often smaller than we expect and temporary, which can leave us feeling disappointed.
How to Be Happy: What Actually Brings Us Joy
About half of our happiness is determined by genetics. Science has shown that people are born to hover at a certain point on the contentment scale. So, all other things being equal, some of us just naturally experience a higher level of wellbeing than others. There’s not too much we can do about our DNA. But don’t despair. The rest of our happiness level is driven by two things we control: what we do and what we think.
Acts and Thoughts That Boost Happiness
Everyone’s answer will be different, but scientists have shown that happy people tend to share some characteristics, many which we can adopt.
Among other things, happy people practice gratitude.
They also think positively and optimistically about the future.
Typically, they devote time to relationships, including family and friends.
They are generous, readily offer help to others in need, accept help when it is offered, and have a passion they are committed to.
We owe it to ourselves, and to those around us, to do what we can to become happier.
The world needs more happy people, and we want to be them.
So, let’s work on making positive habits stick.
Let’s accept responsibility for our own happiness and do our best to choose activities and thoughts that enable it.
The happier we are, the more good we can do in the world.
Please post a comment and let us all know how you’re doing boosting your happiness level. And remember, we are all so much more than enough.
Thank you as always for reading.
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Joan Senio is the founder of KindCompassCoach. Her career includes 20+ years as a health care executive and 15 years (and counting) as a consultant. The common thread through Joan’s professional life has been a commitment to lead, mentor and coach current and future leaders, and women from all walks of life. KindCompassCoach provides information and advice grounded in Joan’s personal experience; however, all articles are backed by research and provide facts and advice from a wide variety of experts. Joan also serves as a thought-leader for KuelLife.com and is a regular contributor to PsychReg and Sixty and Me.
5 Responses
Love your point of Happy people thinking positively and optimistically about the future. Sometimes I think what it would be like with just negative thoughts and vibes all the time. Not good!
I try and make myself happy by thinking positive things and by practising gratitude, a lot of it is in mental attitude. I also like to offer help to people even if I am unable to, it’s nice to try! I love reading your posts Joan!
Thank you so much for reading and commenting Fiona! I really appreciate your support!
I really loved reading this Joan! You are so right about taking responsibility for our own happiness. Thank you for an inspiring read.
Rach – https://rachaelhope.co.uk/
Hi Rachael and thanks for reading and commenting! I’m so glad you enjoyed this post.