10 Ways to Become Happier

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”  Abraham Lincoln

1. Adapt an attitude of gratitude:

Write down 5 things you are grateful for every day. Your focus will shift and you will see more things to be grateful for. Gratitude recharges you with energy and boosts your self-worth. It’s directly linked to physical and mental well-being. The “attitude of gratitude” leads you directly to happiness and is the best antidote to anger, envy, and resentment! Let it become part of your nature! Be grateful for what you have, for all the small things around you, and even for the things you don’t have yet!

2. Pamper yourself:

Treat yourself very nicely. Be gentle. Do more of what you love. Every now an then reward yourself with a gift for yourself for a job well done (read a good book, go to the movies, get a massage, watch a sunrise, sit by the water, etc.)

3. Smile more:

Smile! Even if you don’t feel like it! Smiling improves the quality of your life, health, and relationships. If you don’t do it already, start to smile consciously today. It is confirmed is that laughing and smiling is extremely good for your health! Science has demonstrated that laughing or smiling a lot daily improves your mental state and your creativity. So laugh more!!

4. Stop blaming and comparing:

Let go of the vices of comparing and blaming and choose psitivity. Look at what you have and appreciate it. Stop comparing. There will always be somebody who has more and remember the grass is always greener in the neighbours garden.

5. Forgive everybody who has hurt you (and most of all yourself):

Why forgive someone if the person did me wrong and it’s only their fault? The short answer: It’s a selfish act! You’re doing it for yourself, not for the other person! This is not about being right or wrong! This is about you being well and not losing a lot of energy! Anger and resentment and – even worse – reliving hate over and over again are huge energy drains! Who has sleepless nights? Who is full of anger and doesn’t enjoy the present moment? You or the person you’re not forgiving? Do yourself a favor and let go!

6. Listen to your favourite music:

An easy way to feel positive and happy instantly is to listen to your favourite music! Make a soundtrack of your all-time favourites and listen to them, dance, sing! It might feel stupid at first, but doing this every day will be very beneficial! What are your top 5 favorite songs of all time?

Why not make a playlist on your iPod, phone, or PC and listen to them right now! Do it NOW! Come on!

How did you feel after listening to your favorite song? Any changes in your mood?

What would happen if you made this a daily habit? Write down 5 positive things that happened to you every day

7. Surround yourself with positive people:

WATCH WHO YOU ARE SPENDING YOUR TIME WITH! Jim Rohn said that “You are the average of the five persons you spend the most time with”, so you better take this seriously! Choose to spend more time with people who bring out the best in you, who motivate you, who believe in you. Be around people who empower you. Remember that emotions and attitudes are contagious.

People around you can be the springboard to motivate yourself, gain courage, and help you take the right actions, but on the other hand can also drag you down, drain your energy, and act as brakes in the achieving of your life goals. If you are around negative people all the time, they can convert you into a negative and cynical person over time. They might want to convince you to stay where you are and keep you stuck, because they value security and don’t like risk and uncertainty.

8. Look at the bright side of life:

William Shakespeare said “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. Put things into perspective!

Every negative experience in your life has something good in it – search for it! If you get into the habit of always searching for the good in every situation you will change the quality of your life drastically. Experiences themselves are neutral until we start to give them meaning. Your vision of the world and your perspective “decide” if something is “good” or “bad”, “positive” or “negative”

9. Let go of the past. Live your life today:

Most of us live like we have all the time in the world! We are so busy going after the big pleasures of life that we forget about the small ones. When will you start to take better care of yourself, start exercising, learn something new, do the things you always wanted to do, spend more time with your family? Tomorrow? Next week? Next Monday? Next month? When you win the lottery? When you have another job? When the next project is finished? There are so many other things you have to do right now. You just don’t have time right now! A lot of people never discover the meaning of life until it’s too late and they are just about to die. Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse who accompanied the dying wrote down their top five regrets:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Don’t wait any longer. Live your life fully. NOW! Remember that failure is only feedback, that problems are opportunities to grow. Do the things you always wanted to do. Don’t postpone them any longer. Don’t fight life! Let it flow, because as Paulo Coelho says “One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. Do it now.”

10. Write in your journal:

Have a journal and reflect on your days. This is about taking a couple of minutes at the end of your day and to take a look at what you did well, get some perspective, relive the happy moments, and write everything down in your journal.

By doing this, you will receive an extra boost of happiness, motivation, and self-esteem every morning and evening! It has the positive side effect that just before sleeping, you will be concentrating your mind on positive things, which has a beneficial effect on your sleep and your subconscious mind. Your focus is on the positive things of the day and gratitude instead of the things that didn’t work well which probably would keep you awake

Make an effort to answer the following questions each night before sleeping and write them in your journal:

1. What am I grateful for? (Write 3 -5 points)
2. What 3 things have made me happy today?
3. What 3 things did I do particularly well today?
4. How could I have made today even better?
5. What is my most important goal for tomorrow?

Taken from my book “30 Days – Change your habits, change your life” which has more than 135.000 downloads on Amazon worldwide and at the moment is in the TOP 50 of the Spanish Kindle store.