Happiness is life’s most cherished goal. On every continent, in every country and in every culture, when people are asked, “What do you want?” the most popular answer is “happiness.” When parents are asked, “What do you most want for your children?” the answer is “happiness.” Happiness is the goal that makes other life goals—like success, prosperity and relationships—feel meaningful and enjoyable.

It’s official—the pursuit of happiness has sped up! We are chasing after happiness faster than ever. And the faster we run, the longer the race becomes. In recent years, our happiness levels have not risen. We are experiencing what researchers call “static happiness.” In the 1940s, when people were asked, “How happy are you?” the average score was 7.7 out of 10. Most recently, the average score was 7.2 out of 10.

Are you in search of happiness? Try my 10 tips to find happiness in your life.

Define Happiness

What is your definition of a happy life? Are you living it? Think carefully about this because your definition of happiness will influence every other significant decision in your life. For example, if you think happiness is outside you, you will make happiness into a search, a catch or a reward that you must earn. If, however, you know happiness is inside you, then happiness becomes a compass, a teacher and an enabler that helps you to live your best life.

Accept Happiness

Without self-acceptance, you will limit and block how much happiness, prosperity, love and success you will enjoy. The miracle of self-acceptance is that if you are willing to accept that happiness already exists in you, you will begin to experience more happiness around you. The law of acceptance is what activates the law of attraction. Being willing to accept yourself is the first step to bringing out the best in yourself.

Follow Your Joy

There is a world of difference between searching for happiness and following your joy. Following your joy is about listening to your heart’s desires, noticing what truly inspires you and recognizing your soul’s purpose. A good starting point is to reflect on the question “When am I at my happiest?” People who follow their joy discover a depth of talent and creativity that inspires us all.

Choose Happiness

Some people chase happiness while other people choose happiness. It all depends how much time you want to save. Try to find the place in your mind where you have already decided how good today will be, how good this year will be, how good your life will be. Are you happy with your decision? Set a positive intention right now to let today be even more enjoyable than you thought it was going to be.

Free Happiness

A lot of happiness is overlooked because it doesn’t cost anything. If you think money will buy you happiness, you will go shopping for the rest of your life and never be completely satisfied. Money can’t buy you happiness, because happiness is not an “it.” To enjoy some free happiness, make a list of everything in your life that costs no money and is totally priceless, like laughter, friendship, meditation, air, kindness and the stars at night.

Love Someone

To be happy, all you have to do is be the most loving person you can be. People who give their best time, energy and attention to their most important relationships experience more happiness. All too often, our most important relationships have to compete with our chronic busyness, and the busyness often wins. Stop the busyness and think about who you would like to spend more time with, acknowledge more and have more fun with.

Forgive Now

Sometimes, in order to be happy now, you have to be willing to give up all hope for a better past. Everyone knows what it is like to experience a grievance, a disappointment, a wound or a betrayal. Living happily ever after starts with forgiveness. You can’t keep carrying a grievance and hope to be happy. Similarly, you can’t be a victim and be happy. Practicing forgiveness is what releases you from the past and changes your future. Happiness is a gift you give yourself because it sets you free.

Vocal Gratitude

Say out loud three things you are grateful for. Do this right now, before you go on reading this. Gratitude is often referred to as the shortest shortcut to happiness. The more grateful you are, the happier you will feel. Also, it is impossible to be grateful and depressed. Gratitude with a capital “G” is a deep spiritual realization that you are created perfectly and that everything you have ever wanted—love, joy, peace—is already yours.

Beware Martyrdom

A martyr believes he has to sacrifice himself and happiness in order to enjoy the good things in life. When you try to play the martyr, you lose and so does everyone else. In particular, what you give becomes more and more conditional, full of hidden emotional invoices that must be returned within 28 days, hours, minutes, seconds. Stop neglecting yourself. Be kind to yourself. Life always gets better when you treat yourself better.

So….you want to change your life. Most of us, at one time or another in our lives, reach a point when we know—way down deep inside—that something in our lives has to change, and that WE have to be the ones to change it. Be it spiritually, mentally, emotionally, or physically, the status quo is no longer satisfying our needs, and it’s time to do something about it. When it comes to our self-image, it is often a grueling and difficult task to make change, however, because the thoughts that have “fed” our behaviors for so long are deeply ingrained in our psyches, and the habits of thought are hard to break.

Psychologists Prochaska, Norcross, and DiClemente, among others, have developed a theory about the process of change, and the process by which we can be effective at implementing change in our lives. This model is called the Transtheoretical Model, and involves a number of steps by which people have been professionally and successfully treated and taught to manage their problem behaviors through behavior modification. As you read, ask yourself where you are in the process of change, and what obstacles are standing in your way from reaching the next level, and ultimately success.

1. PRECONTEMPLATION. In this stage, a person is unaware that he or she has a problem, or is under-aware of the problem. There is no expressed desire to make any changes, and no real concern or immediacy for anything to be different. If asked, we might say that things are fine, and that if nothing is different a year from now, it would be okay. Others around us may think we have a problem, or may be concerned about us, but we don’t see their need for concern, or simply don’t care. In terms of weight loss, when in this stage, we are comfortable with our weight, eating habits, health, and activity level. We don’t notice any real problems related to our bodies and are in a state of what is commonly referred to as “denial.”

2. CONTEMPLATION. In this stage, an individual has become aware that there may be a problem, and has begun considering doing something about it. An overweight person may notice that he or she is out of breath when walking a short flight of stairs, or notices that his or her clothes don’t fit the way they used to. He or she realizes that his or her health may be in jeopardy, and is beginning to “wish” that things could be different. When in this stage we often talk about how we really should lose weight. We should go to the gym. We should say no to chocolate super fudge brownies. We should eat more fruits and veggies. We should…we should….we should…but we don’t.

3. COMMITMENT. In this stage, we have become more than aware that we have a problem. We are motivated to do something to change it. Our health is at risk. We don’t like ourselves. We are self conscious. “Darnit,” we say. “I can’t take it any more. It’s time to do something about this.” We go beyond saying “I should” and begin saying “I will.” Interestingly, this is a difficult stage to get to. We often enter this stage and commit to change only when the alternative is no longer tolerable. The thought of NOT changing is unbearable. We can’t stand being out of shape any more. We are sick of the way we feel about ourselves. We are sick of watching life instead of participating in it. It is in this stage that change—and progress—are born.

4. PREPARATION. So we’ve decided to change. Perhaps we’ve decided to lose weight, or be more active, or change our eating habits, or stop telling ourselves negative thoughts. So how do we go about doing that? We need a plan. We brainstorm. This is our “could” stage. We think of every possible alternative and resource. We could join a gym. We could hire a personal trainer. We could eat nothing but lean cuisines. We could go on a grapefruit diet. We could exercise an hour every day. They may be realistic, or downright crazy, but we’re brainstorming. We look at our options, and we choose the ones that will work for us. We prepare for battle. We buy the workout outfits with the matching headbands. We invest in expensive home gym equipment. We buy unproven supplements from professional looking models on tv. We rid our homes of dangerous temptations. We devise a plan, and are intent on following it through. We are ready.

5. ACTION. We’ve committed. We’ve prepared. We are physically, emotionally, and spiritually ready to embark on a journey by which we will improve our lives. And we follow our plan. The action stage is the “I am” stage. I am working out 3 days a week. I am following a sound nutrition plan. I am catching myself and the negative things I say to myself about food and my weight. I am feeling better. I am proud of myself. I am doing. I am acting responsibly. I am changing and I feel it. This stage, when engaged consistently, will result in the changes for which we have prepared and desired for so long. Is it easy? No. Is it always fun? No. Does it take a great deal of motivation, support, desire, and tenacity? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. If you stick to it, will it happen? Yes. The key is to enjoy the doing as much as the results of doing. Take pride in the fact that you are behaving better. You deserve respect. You’re doing more than most. You’re way ahead of where you were in the game back when. The secret is to keep doing. It takes a week or less to form a bad habit; it takes at least 30 consistent abstinent days to break one. Give yourself time to form good habits that will last you long after you’ve reached your weight loss goal. Just keep doing.

6. MAINTENANCE. Whew! You’ve been working out. Your clothes fit differently. You feel proud when you look in the mirror. You hold your head higher. You have more self confidence. The danger of this stage, after we’ve made some big changes, is that we slide into complacency. We’re no longer so uncomfortable that we MUST change, and we are at high risk for relapse into past unhealthy and ineffective behaviors. Research shows that people who are able to maintain healthy changes for a minimum of six months have a great chance of success. If we can maintain—not the weight, but the behaviors that have helped us lose it—then we are on our way to lifelong changes. All those good habits that were hard for us at times—working out, watching what we eat, encouraging ourselves, getting support from others—have become part of our lifestyle. It’s just what we do, and the alternative is not an option.

When we have gotten to the point where we have implemented healthy lifestyle BEHAVIORS into our daily living, and continue to engage in those healthy behaviors regardless of the fact that we have reached a weight loss goal, it is THEN that we will have been truly successful at changing for life. When it becomes unthinkable to BEHAVE differently, then we will have reached the point where weight is no longer the focus of our goals, and will no longer be a source of low self-esteem. After all, we will be managing our lives in a way that demands respect from others, and it will show not only in the fitness of our bodies, but in the confidence and pride with which we greet the world. And THAT is where real success is measured.

Jana BeutlerHolland, Co-Owner of Strength Wellness Athletic Training (S.W.A.T. )

A review of more than 160 studies has found ‘clear and compelling evidence’ that – all else being equal – happy people tend to live longer and experience better health than their unhappy peers.

The study is the most comprehensive review so far of the evidence linking happiness to health outcomes. Its lead author, University of Illinois professor emeritus of psychology Ed Diener, who also is a senior scientist for the Gallup Organisation, of Princeton, N.J., analysed long-term studies of human subjects, experimental human and animal trials, and studies that evaluate the health status of people stressed by natural events.

‘We reviewed eight different types of studies,’ Diener said. ‘And the general conclusion from each type of study is that your subjective well-being – that is, feeling positive about your life, not stressed out, not depressed – contributes to both longevity and better health among healthy populations.’ The results were published in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being.

A study that followed nearly 5,000 university students for more than 40 years, for example, found that those who were most pessimistic as students tended to die younger than their peers. An even longer-term study that followed 180 Catholic nuns from early adulthood to old age found that those who wrote positive autobiographies in their early 20s tended to outlive those who wrote more negative accounts of their young lives.

There were a few exceptions, but most of the long-term studies the researchers reviewed found that anxiety, depression, a lack of enjoyment of daily activities and pessimism all are associated with higher rates of disease and a shorter lifespan.

Animal studies also demonstrate a strong link between stress and poor health. Experiments in which animals receive the same care but differ in their stress levels (as a result of an abundance of nest mates in their cages, for example) have found that stressed animals are more susceptible to heart disease, have weaker immune systems and tend to die younger than those living in less crowded conditions.

Laboratory experiments on humans have found that positive moods reduce stress-related hormones, increase immune function and promote the speedy recovery of the heart after exertion. In other studies, marital conflicts and high hostility in married couples were associated with slow wound healing and a poorer immune response.

‘I was almost shocked and certainly surprised to see the consistency of the data,’ Diener said. ‘All of these different kinds of studies point to the same conclusion: that health and then longevity in turn are influenced by our mood states.’

While happiness might not by itself prevent or cure disease, the evidence that positive emotions and enjoyment of life contribute to better health and a longer lifespan is stronger than the data linking obesity to reduced longevity, Diener said.

‘Happiness is no magic bullet,’ he said. ‘But the evidence is clear and compelling that it changes your odds of getting disease or dying young.’

‘Although there are a handful of studies that find opposite effects,’ Diener said, ‘the overwhelming majority of studies support the conclusion that happiness is associated with health and longevity. Current health recommendations focus on four things: avoid obesity, eat right, don’t smoke, and exercise. It may be time to add ‘be happy and avoid chronic anger and depression’ to the list.’

If you are ready to change your life and stop “spining your wheels” – Join Us

By Good News Network
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Defy convention
Do the healthy thing, even when it’s challenging, inconvenient or considered weird. Take pride in that.

Buck trends
Just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’s smart or good for you. Enlist fellow trend buckers and create a trend of your own.

Rage against the machine
Use your healthy frustration about the unhealthy status quo to spark creativity and determination.

Celebrate what’s good
Look for signs of progress (beyond pounds lost) and rejoice when you find them. Give yourself a pat on the back every time you make your health a priority.

Repossess your health
Reclaim responsibility for your well-being; own your daily choices; minimize your reliance on the broken sick-care system.

Redefine your role
You are not a “healthcare consumer.” You are a human being. You may be experiencing an illness or other health challenge right now, but remember that good health is your body’s natural state.

Practice medicine without a license
Research your own conditions and treatment alternatives, ask questions, and seek second opinions with impunity. Leverage the expertise of trained pros, but don’t allow it to eclipse your own informed instincts about what’s best for you.

Minimize symptom suppression
Make whole-person vitality, well-being and resilience your goal. Partner with healthcare pros who understand and support your desire to be fully healthy with a minimum of medical intervention.

Safeguard your juju
Don’t let yourself get run down, depressed, negative or reactive. That’s when immunity drops, inflammation rages, and unhealthy tendencies strike.

See the bigger picture
Yes, this is about you, but your well-being also affects everyone and everything around you. When you get healthier, everybody benefits.

Be part of the solution
It’s going to take a lot of strong, clear-headed, high-vitality people to solve the world’s problems. Be one of them.

Go at your own pace
A healthy life is more a marathon than a sprint. So start where you are. Choose sensible, sustainable shifts over instant cures and quick fixes.

Be proactive
If you feel a cold, flu or nasty headache coming on, take evasive maneuvers. Rest. Refuel. Reconnect. Rebuild your immunity and vitality. There’s no heroism in ignoring your body’s needs.

Leverage your big “whys”
Know the specific reasons your health matters to you. Write them down where you’ll see them daily.

Raise your sights
Don’t get sucked in by obsessions with six-pack abs and buns of steel. Don’t play “compare the bodies.” Fulfill your best-self vision.

Learn the skills
Healthy, fit people have learned how to be healthy. Learn those skills, practice them, and you’ll be healthy, too.

Reap the rewards
Look and feel better, sure. But also think better, smell better, give better, love better, live better, be better.

Focus on the fundamentals
Drink water, eat good food, move, rest, relax, connect. Don’t sweat the more complex stuff until you’ve got a grip on the basics.

Fake it till you make it
Don’t yet see yourself as a super-healthy person? Experiment with doing a little of what you’d do if you were already supremely healthy and fit. As often as you can, act as if your commitment were unwavering.

Aim for 85%
You don’t have to make 100% healthy choices all the time. It’s what you do most of the time — day in, day out — that counts. The healthier you get, the easier and more automatic healthy choices will become.

Keep your body clean, inside and out
Toxins, poisons and other gunk have no place in the temple. Avoid artificial flavors, preservatives, colors, fragrances, petrochemicals and other toxic ingredients whenever possible.

Brush and floss
Your teeth and gums are a huge determining factor in your whole-body well-being. They’re also an easy place to start demonstrating your commitment to whole-person health on a daily basis.

Eat fresh
Trade dead, packaged goods for foods that are fresh, alive and full of high-vibe goodness. Figure out where to find them, learn to juice/slice/dice them, and eat them with great pleasure.

Eat more plants
There’s a long list of phytonutrients and other good stuff in vegetables, fruits and legumes that you can’t get any other way. Put plants at the center of your plate for as many meals and snacks as you can.

Don’t fall for fakery
Processed, fake, diet and imitation ingredients burden and inflame your body, contributing to chronic disease. And there’s no clinical proof that artificial sweeteners and fat-free products support weight loss or do any part of you any good.

Learn to cook
Get a dozen healthy, whole-food recipes under your belt, and your life will be forever changed. Start by mastering one.

Have breakfast
Let there be protein, produce, healthy fats and fiber in it. A good breakfast wards off energy dips, brain fog and afternoon cravings.

Watch your reactions
40% of U.S. adults have an intolerance to gluten; 70% to dairy. Know if you’re one of them. Digestive, skin, joint, energy and mood problems may be your first clue.

Beware the USDA Food Pyramid
It is a whole lot healthier for Big Ag and Big Business than for humans. Fill two-thirds of your plate with an array of vegetables, add in some other whole foods you enjoy, and don’t let the rest of the Pyramid’s propaganda confuse you.

Approach ADA guidelines with a healthy dose of doubt
The American Dietetic Association is sponsored by processed-food corporations and staffed by former food-company execs. Their pro-processed-food advice is often colored by that, and their calorie-counting obsessions are profoundly counterproductive.

Go easy on the sugar and flour
These two ingredients (combined with unhealthy industrial vegetable oils) have a starring role in most packaged foods we eat. More than any other culprit, they fuel inflammation, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and cancer.

Savor what you eat
The foods you rush into your body tend to create more problems than they solve. Take your time and consciously enjoy every single bite. Notice as your hunger diminishes.

Care where food comes from
Know your food’s history, and you’ll want to consume more selectively. Most factory-farmed and industrially produced foods aren’t all that appetizing once you know their origins.

Go for quality, not quantity
An ounce of wonderful is far better than a whole mess of mediocrity. Most beige, starchy and supersized foods are not worth eating.

Move it out
A healthy person poops every day. Twice a day, maybe more. How’s your fiber and water intake? (Also, see #28.) A clogged up colon wreaks havoc on your whole body.

Read labels
Don’t worry so much about the calories, grams and RDAs. Read the ingredients. Most ingredient lists begin with some combination of enriched wheat flour, sugar and oil. Avoid foods like that. Also avoid foods with long lists of ingredients you don’t recognize.

Ignore labels
Most of the marketing claims are meaningless, and a lot of the data is confusing. Most of the very best foods (in the produce department) have precisely one ingredient and, often, no labels at all.

Say no to soda
Both regular and diet soft drinks stimulate a pro-inflammatory insulin response, trigger cravings, acidify the body, decay your teeth and leach minerals out of your bones.

Ask for what you want
If you want extra this, none of that, something on the side, X in place of Y, broiled instead of fried, and everything prepared just so — say so. Being picky about what you put in your body is nothing to be ashamed of. Picky eaters unite!

Drink a lot of water
The health of every cell and synapse depends on it. And when you’re dehydrated on a regular basis —even a little — your metabolism, energy and immunity all suffer mightily.

Filter your water
You’ll drink more when it tastes pure and you know it’s clean. If plain water doesn’t turn your crank, enjoy water with a slice of lemon, orange, cucumber, or a splash of juice. Or try herbal tea instead.

Love what you’ve got
Treat your body with respect and appreciation. Focus on what it can do, not what it can’t. Find something to celebrate, not something to criticize.

Redefine your goals
If you’ve been trying to lose weight and struggling, make it your goal to get superbly healthy and fit instead. And then don’t be surprised when the excess weight starts melting off.

Beware artificial hungers
Notice what triggers your sudden desires and uncontrollable appetites. Stress and anxiety both masquerade as hunger. Find better ways of dealing with them or warding them off.

Identify real hungers
You can’t eat or spend your way out of loneliness, fear, boredom or lack of meaning. Find healthy ways to honor and shift them, instead.

Be human
Cut yourself a little slack now and then, and forgive yourself your unhealthy trespasses. Learn what you can from them, and then move on.

Make being healthy easier
Self-restraint is a limited resource. Do everything in your power to make healthy choices automatic choices and to keep unhealthy temptations out of range.

Don’t believe the hype
Give up on gimmicks, fads and instant fixes. Most miraculous weight-loss schemes do more harm than good, and yo-yo dieting is a recipe for weight gain.

Look beyond unrealistic role models
Find your inspiration in people whose lives and goals have some relevance to your own. Also remember that most of the pictures you see of celebrities and fitness models have been extensively retouched.

Question authority
Big organizations like the FDA, USDA, AHA, AMA and ADA all struggle under real limitations and conflicts of interest. Know and understand them.

Face the facts
Your body is a mirror: It reflects your choices, your priorities, your habits, your attitudes and your quality of life. If you don’t like your body, be willing to change the way you are living.

Maintain a morning practice
Take a few minutes each sunup to set your intentions, take a few breaths, read an inspiring passage and start the day on your own terms. You may be shocked at the difference it makes.

Move your body
Every day, every which-way you can, in as many ways as you enjoy. Movement nourishes your body, clears toxins, and reduces the inflammation that breeds illness and irritation.

Reframe exercise as a privilege
You don’t have to exercise. You get to exercise. Visit a person whose mobility is severely limited, and you’ll appreciate the distinction. Do what you can, and count yourself lucky.

Break a sweat
The more often, the better. Sweat is a signal that your metabolism is switching into a higher gear. Sweat is weakness, complacency and toxicity leaving the body.

Stay strong
More muscle and sinew means more capacity to do anything. Don’t let age, aches and pains, or lack of time be your excuses for abandoning your strength.

Maximize your mitochondria
Every time you exercise, you upgrade your body’s energy-and-vitality factories and build your metabolism.

Find your fitness edge
Flirt with it in ways that feel good and exhilarating. Bursts of high-intensity exercise trigger positive, dramatic changes and help catalyze the body’s healing response.

Get past body envy
Release supermodel and celebrity obsessions. Translate your desire for a fitter, more beautiful body into positive, self-respecting daily action that nourishes you and makes you stronger.

Embrace meditation
There are few life skills that will pay of as handsomely or give you as much peace and healthy perspective. Even a few minutes of meditation a day can trigger positive transformations in your biochemistry, neurology — even your DNA.

Study your systems
Learn how your body works, and respect its genius. The unfortunate fact that most of us aren’t formally educated in how to properly care for our bodies doesn’t mean you can’t learn.

Get to the bottom of your symptoms
Body trouble? Find the source. Root out the cause. Don’t settle for a drug that forces your symptoms to go underground only to pop up somewhere else with a vengeance.

Self-medicate with caution
Get honest about how you’re using alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, pain killers and other drugs to simulate well-being or cover discomfort.

Abandon victim thinking
“Poor me” doesn’t get you anywhere you want to go. Instead, dust yourself off, see the choices that got you here, then reclaim your prerogative to choose your own better way forward.

Sleep well
Rest = recovery, repair and resilience. Exhaustion = illness and messed-up metabolism. Prioritize ample sleep time as the health essential it is.

Breathe deep
In for four, out for five. Oxygen’s good; breathing keeps you alive.

Get off your butt.
Sitting for more than an hour or so at a stretch is deadly. Get up, stretch, walk around. Do some deep knee bends or go climb a couple flights of stairs.

Slow down
Perennial rushing is toxic to the body and mind. Find moments of silence and contemplation where you can just be. Create margins of sanity. Practice the defensive art of scheduling breaks and vacations.

Connect with community
Find ways of being active and involved in some kind of group activity. Joining a group, if you haven’t already, can reduce your risk of dying this year by half.

Heal your relationships
Mend fences, build bridges, forgive trespasses, grieve losses and let toxic grudges go. Then move on. Get help with this if you need to.

Get outside
You need sunshine, fresh air and time in nature. Daily. Grab five minutes in the morning, five on the way home from work.

Respect your environment
Keep in mind that human health depends upon the health of a lot of interconnected ecosystems and the planet as a whole. Make choices that respect that reality.

Embrace play
Fun, novelty, humor and joy are key sources of energy, strength and inspiration. If you’re suffering from a case of fun-deficit disorder, remedy that situation ASAP.

Consume media wisely
Seek out entertainment and information that makes your life better. Choose not to watch, read or listen to stuff that demoralizes or immobilizes you, incites craziness, or insults your intelligence.

Be your own biggest fan
Refuse to bad-talk your body, nitpick your appearance or kvetch about your weight. Find something to dig/love/ appreciate about yourself — just the way you are.

Turn off the TV
Opiate of the masses. Fritterer of time. Fryer of focus. The average American watches several hours of TV a day. How much of your life are you willing to hand over to a box?

Eliminate tolerations
If something’s driving you crazy, deal with it. Noticing and resolving daily annoyances, messes and downers helps free up energy and increases your pleasure in living.

Follow the money
Look at your checkbook register and credit-card statements for clues about where your spending is inconsistent with your healthy goals and values.

Redirect your resources
Take some of the money you’re spending on unhealthy distraction, consolations and indulgences, and re-route it toward your healthy-living priorities instead.

Ditch debt
The stress of being stretched too thin financially is at the root of a great many health ills. Develop the skills you need to master your money and live within your means.

Invest in your health
Money spent proactively on your health delivers far better returns than money spent reactively on treating illness and disease. When healthy choices seem “too expensive,” consider the long-term costs of health-sapping alternatives.

Wise up
Keep seeking new wisdom and mastering new skills that help you take better care of your body and live a more satisfying life. Continual learning and discovery support both health and happiness.

Build on your successes
Look at what has worked well for you in the past, and do more of that. Identify and leverage your strengths. Be willing to learn from your “failures,” too — but refuse to wallow in them.

Surprise yourself
Don’t be boring. Every once in a while, do something unexpected or out of character and see what happens.

Find your tribe
Surround yourself with other healthy, positive, active people who share your passions. It’s a lot easier to thrive around people who are thriving.

Laugh it up
Seek out mirth, glee and merriment at every opportunity. Laughter triggers a cascade of healing, energizing chemicals.

Get a buddy
Do your healthy thing with a pal or partner. Camaraderie and accountability go a long way toward creating success.

Give your best gifts
Developing and sharing them endows you with enthusiasm and energy. Neglecting or squandering them slowly kills you.

Pace yourself
When working hard, take brief rest breaks every 90 to 120 minutes so your cells can recharge. Be kind to yourself, and be honest about how much you can take on at any given time.

Vote your values
Take your healthy convictions to the polls. Share them with your elected representatives. Vote with your dollars, too, to support healthy products, companies and communities.

Visualize the possibilities
What if we lived in a world where the majority of people were healthy and happy most of the time? Imagine that future — then start creating it in your own life, one step at a time.

Follow your bliss
The more positivity and enthusiasm you can build into your life, the healthier, happier and more satisfied you’ll be. Happiness breeds healthiness.

Be responsible for yourself
Own your decisions and actions, no matter what the circumstances. Refuse to abuse or be abused on any level. See challenges and setbacks as learning opportunities.

Take the high road
If you feel yourself getting dragged down or losing traction in your healthy commitments, ask: What’s my highest choice right now? What can I do to make this situation better?

Make time
The hour you give yourself for self-care pays you back three. Think you’re too busy? The busier you are, the more effective and energetic you need to be, and the less time you have to get sick.

Make space
Declutter your house, your office, your car, your desk, your mind. Create room for your chosen future; create space that reflects the way you want to feel.

Focus on action, not outcomes
Live the life of a healthy person, and the results will take care of themselves. Every healthy step is a victory. Every day is an opportunity to feel, live and be better than the day before.

Make it a party
Discover new healthy passions. Revel in new healthy pleasures. Have so much fun getting and being healthy that everyone around you wants to do it, too!

Let go of excuses
Yes, you’re busy. You probably have a lot of priorities competing for your time, energy and resources. But wouldn’t all those priorities be better served by a healthier, more dynamic you?

Show up
No one is going to do this for you. You can’t fake it, and you can’t phone it in. Your body is where you’re going to spend the rest of your life. So make it a great place to live.

Pass it on
Pssst! Being healthy is a revolutionary act. The more of us who stand up for our health and happiness, the more power we have to change the world — one person, one life, one revolutionary act at a time.

 
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by: Megan, selected from Experience Life

A couple of years ago I appeared on the CNBC show, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. The theme was that being happy will bring you cash. Over the top? Absolutely. Ridiculously enthusiastic and fakely combative? Definitely. The people were all very nice though, and I had fun (even after the first segment, when the executive producer told everyone they were doing “a great job,” but then pulled me aside and ordered me “to amp it up”).

So, does happiness deliver dollar bills? Well, actually, the evidence suggests it does.

I’ll explain how, but allow me first to backtrack for a moment.

As an experimental social psychologist who has been studying happiness for almost 20 years, I’m often asked, “What makes people happy?” Until a few years ago, my answer always reflected the common wisdom and empirical findings in my field – “It’s relationships, stupid.” That is, I always responded that our interpersonal ties – the strength of our friendships, familial bonds, and intimate connections – show the highest correlations with well-being.

Imagine my surprise then, after Ed Diener, Laura King, and I conducted a meta-analysis (a “study of studies”) of 225 studies of well-being. I wholly expected to discover that social relationships – more than any other variable – would be both causes and consequences of being happy. However, what I observed was something rather different. One factor towered over relationships in its connection with happiness. That factor was work.

The evidence, for example, demonstrates that people who have jobs distinguished by autonomy, meaning and variety – and who show superior performance and productivity – are significantly happier than those who don’t. Supervisors are happier than those lower on the totem pole, and leaders who receive high ratings from their customers are happier than those with poor ratings. And, of course, the income that a job provides is also associated with happiness, though we now all know that money has more of an impact when we have less of it.

Why does our work make us happy? Because it provides us a sense of structure to our days, and important and meaningful life to pursue. Perhaps even more important, it furnishes us with close colleagues, friends and even marriage partners.

The story doesn’t end there, however. Studies reveal that the causal direction between happiness and work runs both ways. Not only do creativity and productivity at the office make people happy, but happier people have been found to be more creative and productive. They are better “organizational citizens” (going above and beyond their job duties), better negotiators, and are less likely to take sick days, to quit, or to suffer burnout.

The most persuasive data regarding the effects of happiness on positive work outcomes (as opposed to vice versa) come from longitudinal studies – that is, investigations that track the same participants over a long period of time. These studies are great. For example, people who report that they are happy at age 18 achieve greater financial independence, higher occupational attainment and greater work autonomy by age 26. Furthermore, the happier a person is, the more likely she will get a job offer, keep her job, and get a new job if she ever loses it. Finally, one fascinating study showed that people who express more positive emotions on the job receive more favorable evaluations from their supervisors 3.5 years later.

But the point that really interested Donny Deutsch and his producers is that all of this applies to income. Not only does greater wealth make people (somewhat) happy, but happy people appear more likely to accrue greater wealth in life. For example, research has demonstrated that the happier a person is at one point in his life, the higher income he will earn at a later point. In one of my favorite studies, researchers showed that those who were happy as college freshmen had higher salaries 16 years later, when they were about 37!

But before we find yet another reason to be envious of very happy people (not only do they get to feel great, but they get to have good jobs and make more money as well!), consider what the research on happiness and work suggests. It suggests that, when it comes to work life, we can create our own so-called “upward spirals.” The more successful we are at our jobs, the higher income we make, and the better work environment we have, the happier we will be. This increased happiness will foster greater success, more money, and an improved work environment, which will further enhance happiness, and so on and so on and so on.

About the author:

Sonja Lyubomirsky is a social psychologist at the University of California, Riverside and author of The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want.

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