Five Easy Steps to Happiness

Many of us spend our lives in the pursuit of happiness and fulfilment. The word pursuit implies that we are chasing something that remains just out of our reach. The belief that we somehow have to pay for the right to be happy keeps many of us trudging along, yearning for the day when we finally earn our freedom. The key that unlocks the door to pure happiness is very simple, anyone can do it, and it’s FREE. The wonderful truth is that if we are truly happy and content right now, our lives will blossom.

Most of us like being around happy people, they are like a breath of fresh air for the soul, a glimpse of what we aspire to be. They seem to be blessed with friends and opportunities fall easily into their lap. They do not necessarily own their own home or have their retirement planned and paid for. They do have a zest for life, enthusiasm, appreciation of people and places, confidence to try new things, and a positive outlook.

With a little introspection and conscious action, you too can decide to grab life by the reins, and really LIVE! Here are five essential but simple steps in the path to freedom and happiness.

The Five Easy Steps

1. Like yourself: Start being nice to yourself. Congratulate yourself when you complete a task, or do something well. Spend time and effort on yourself, because you deserve it. Tell yourself you look great! Complement yourself constantly, and if you catch yourself being mean or picky to yourself…STOP IT! Treat yourself the way you treat others, and most importantly the way you want others to treat you.
2. Forgive & let go of the past: Holding onto anger, resentment guilt and fear from things that you cannot change is like putting heavy chains around your ankles before running a race, you’re just holding yourself back unnecessarily. Sometimes really awful things happen to us, or we do terrible things to others, but you can’t change anything by worrying about it, or feeling guilty or angry. The only way to be free is to forgive everyone, including yourself, and move forward with a lighter heart. By blaming others for our unhappiness, we give away the power to choose happiness. You can’t enjoy the life you’re in, if you’re busy feeling bad about the life that’s been.
3. Be grateful for all you have: Look around and appreciate the blessings in your life. See how lucky you really are. Be thankful for the friends/family you do have (even if they drive you crazy), and for the roof over your head tonight (even if it is rented or borrowed), for the food you have to eat (even if it’s bland & you had to cook it yourself). If you’ve got a car, great! If not be thankful for the bus/train/tram or for the legs that get you round.
4. Live in the moment: Enjoy yourself right now. The past is gone we can’t have more fun yesterday. The future is illusive, it’s always ahead of us. The only place that we can make choices and feel happy is right now. Each moment we make a decision to either continue living in the same way or to do something different. If it makes you happy, keep doing it, if it makes you miserable, choose something different. If you hate your job, be thankful that you’ve got one, while actively making choices that will lead to a different job (of course you can!). You have infinitely many choices to make in each moment, so stop running on autopilot and take control.
5. Say yes! Take a risk with life, and put yourself out there. How often do you say no to opportunities to have fun, learn something new, meet new people, see new places and have totally new experiences? Next time you get invited to do something…say Yes! Next time you see something that looks like fun…give it a go. Next time you go to get pizza again…get Thai instead. Next time the kids want to go to the park…take them. If you start recognising and enjoying the small opportunities that already exist in your life, you will find that more appear. If you go to one party, you’ll get invited to others, if you start a new hobby, you’ll make a new set of friends, if you start making different choices, different results will follow.