8 Simple Steps To Be Happier
by Dan Miranda on June 22, 2009
in Self-Fulfillment
As I explore through the world at an increasingly slower rate, I find that a surprising amount of people find it okay to be sad. Take for instance this story. Whether it’s a false, or true, story doesn’t change the fact that it still is inspirational.
While we constantly become more entangled with technology, we become farther and father from our hearts. What we feel is starting to slime down an easy path. The mass majority of our emotions are coming from outsourced materials. This has to change.
The common age of the internet is only fourteen years old. But already we have given in to being less provocative about how we feel. The times are always changing, yes, but not always with our emotions at stake.
- Figure out why you are unhappy. The why is the precise reason why you are failing in happiness. Once you find out why, you can start to take the proper steps towards changing that.
- Find a core group of people who are as happy as you want to be. This can mean your parents, your children, or even someone you aren’t that close with. Ask them their secrets to happiness. Obviously they will be no expert in the topic, but they will at least be a start in your quest for happiness.
- Start smiling. I really should do a whole post on smiling because it’s really something that people should do more often. (And by writing a post on smiling people eventually smile.) Once you start to smile, it becomes a habit. Excuses like “my teeth are crooked” or “my smile doesn’t come out the way I want” can be easily avoided by smiling to yourself in bed before you go to sleep.
- Destroy your goals. This is somewhat hypocritical coming from someone who said that your goals were the most important thing to you. What I really meant, however, is that you should focus on your dreams and aspirations.
- Have the right attitude. The problem with attitude, is that it’s not measured by yourself, rather the people you interact with. The good news, though, is that your attitude is easy to change. Gail Goodwin, @inspiremetoday, decided to throw out an inspirational quote on a Friday morning: “We don’t lack $, we don’t lack the time. We only lack the right attitude and that’s easy to change. Go for it!”
- Think simple. Simplicity is happiness. Do you want to see my screen? Four folders on my desktop. Rather than four hundred documents on my desktop, I have them all saved in my “Archive” folder. For more information on my strategy, look at this Zen Habits post.
- Talk to a buddy of yours. As I happen to be writing this post, we discuss our for our blogging careers. This made me shocked. Don’t get me wrong Joshua of GeeksPodcast.com has a site worth checking out. I was so shocked however because I didn’t expect to find happiness out of a measly conversation.
- Do the things you want to do. Following is just being a slave. If you take action doing the things you love and constantly think about, go for the gold. Go out there tonight and complete that task or visit that museum you’ve always wanted to. Clear time in every week for things that you’ve never gotten a chance to do.
Great list Dan! More often than not people are unhappy because they try to be happy. Just simply be! I like number 3.
I love this post (of course!). You have eight really great steps here and I think anyone seeking happiness could really benefit from reading this. Great stuff here!
Dan, my man, nice list.
I don’t believe in true happiness as a permanent state of mind. But I do believe we should strive to lvie as many happy moments as we possibly can. And this list shows us great ways to do it. My personal favorite is number 3, no doubt. Smiling is a lost art. Such a simple way to infuse oneself with happiness.
Attitude is everything. Simple as that! Great post.
I was reading this post when my laptop ran out of battery. I don’t
know, maybe because i don’t need to read it just to be happy. But
after twenty-four hours of neglect (for i was busy doing university
work), i found out that my computer saved this webpage, so i looked it
over. It is fascinating how you put up this 8 steps. I wonder, if
there are only 8 steps to be happy, this could be it. But when i sort
them out through my head and relate them to every happy experience, i
cannot think of one. Maybe because the origin of my happiness is not
directed or referenced to my future life: the life tomorrow, and the
whole years after that.
I always think i should cherish each minute i live, small moments are
as crucial as getting my first breath. I even call myself “a one-day
person” because i always think everytime i woke up in the morning,
that this is the only day, one day to live my whole life.
My existence is measure not in years, or months, or weeks, not even
in days, but in hours. And there is this amount of fear, that this is
the last day of my life. I always feel this exhilirating feeling that
“i am alive” at this very moment, breathing, and writing this comment.
Do you ever get this feeling that this is your only day, only day to
make yourself happy?
Are you happy here and now?
I really don’t care about my future life because it is the origin of
sadness. The future is filled with doubt, expectations, idealism and
threat. It chokes us everyday.
If given one day to live your whole life what would you do?
If given this day, what are you doing right now?
Is it what you wanted, is it part of what you thought your life, is it
happiness?
We are finite beings, we live in a world unstable and always in the
state of flux, we could die anytime, we could lose someone anytime,
any where. We live with death.
But do not fear, have faith. Faith because it shall carry us from this
abyss. Life is here. Live it while it last, the hours are counting us,
counting us.
Live each day, because we have one day to make the best out of life.