How to Be Happy - 10 Top Tips That Really Work!

1. Know where you’re going

Happy people tend to have clear, well-defined goals. Work out where you want to be and what you need to do to get there. Ensure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed).

2. Know why you’re going there

Developing a sense of life purpose will also markedly increase your chances of experiencing true happiness. As well as working out where you want to get to, make sure you have a good reason for why you’re trying to go there.

3. Go with your strengths

Work out what you’re good at and find ways to do it as much as possible. Happiness is not as much about fixing your faults and overcoming your weaknesses as it is about finding ways to focus your life on and around your talents and qualities.

4. Don’t go alone

Enlist the support of family and friends. Those who have good intimate relationships and those who actively and consistently work to improve the quality of their relationships tend to be happier. So invite others to join you in your endeavours, share your experiences, and don’t forget to also support them as well.

5. Go with a positive attitude

One of the most significant, contributing factors to happiness is optimistic thinking. Although you won’t always have a choice in determining what goes on around you, you will always have a choice in determining how you think about what goes on around you. This will largely determine the extent to which you are, or aren’t, happy.

6. Ensure you have the energy to go all the way

Being happy depends at least in part on being healthy. Being healthy depends on keeping active and exercising regularly, eating an adequate and well-balanced diet, and ensuring you attain enough sleep and rest.

7. Control which way you go

Happiness can be enhanced by maximising the control you have over your life. So learn and practice skills such as problem solving and time management, meditation and communication. At the same time, however, no one has complete control and so it is also important to be realistic and to accept that over which you have no control.

8. Maintain discipline along the way

Happiness is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced every day while misery is a few bad habits or errors of judgement repeated every day. Although happiness might not be yours today, you can certainly start to implement the strategies you need today. Maintain focus and you’ll be happy before you know it!

9. Be present every step of the way

Happy people tend to spend more time thinking about and “being in the present” as opposed to dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Learn from your mistakes and plan to achieve, but practice living life in the moment and enjoy happiness now.

10. Go, go and keep going all the way

We all face obstacles and problems at times. Happy people expect this and adapt when necessary. All of the components outlined above are skills that can be learned. Just like any other skills, you’ll get better at utilising these strategies with practice and perseverance. Stick at it and happiness will be yours.