“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”— Abraham Lincoln
Life has taught us that the ability to make other people happy is the highest expression of success. The challenge in achieving this level of success comes when you yourself are not completely happy.
Here are five ways that you can increase the amount of happiness in your life:
- Set the bar high every day. Start each day with a positive outlook on what YOU can expect to happen throughout the day. Your life can live up to or down to your expectations. It’s your call.
- Create a “To Do” and a “Not To Do” List. Does it seems like your “to do” list gets longer and your hours to complete them get shorter? Take the time to carefully prioritize your tasks and tackle them one at a time – in order of importance. You will be surprised at how much more you get done when you take steps to be more efficient.
- Assume people have good intentions. Don’t waste your emotional energy trying to figure out “why” a person is acting the way they are. You’ll be better off in the long run if you give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that the person has good intentions.
- Focus on the job at hand. The big enemy of happiness is worry. Many times worry and stress comes from focusing on some task or commitment that is most often out of your control. If you have done your very best and know that is all that you could have done, it’s time to push the worries to the side and move on to the next job.
- End each day with gratitude. At the end of the day, take a moment and think about “successes” that you encountered throughout the day. It may be something as simple as the “thank you” that you extended to an unhappy store clerk or something as significant as closing the deal on a job that seemed unattainable. Whatever your object of thanks is, remember that each day is a unique gift.
