Make Happiness A Habit

Want to hack your happiness? Find out the habits of happy people, how to nurture your strengths, let go of grudges and nourish your inner wisdom.

- Carrol Baker

You know those people who are always joyful, no matter what life throws at them? In the face of adversity, they shine, a challenge becomes an opportunity, a potential heartbreak becomes spiritual growth.

So, what is it that makes them feel so happy? And what is happiness, really? Living your best life? Feeling inner peace and contentment? A sense of playfulness? Enjoyment in the moment?

Happiness can be fleeting — or a state of being. Thucydides, the Athenian historian and general, said: “The secret to happiness is freedom ... And the secret to freedom is courage.”

Freedom to choose. Freedom to be who you want to be. You can choose to be happy.

Some say your inner propensity to embrace happiness is linked to your genes. According to research by Dr Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California, 50 per cent of individual differences in happiness are determined by genes, 10 per cent by life circumstances and 40 per cent by intentional activities.

A common mindset is that some people find happiness elusive because they treat it as a goal and not a way to live life. Neil Pasricha, author of The Happiness Equation, tells the reader the traditional model of happiness is to work hard and happiness will follow. But instead, one success gets us striving for another, then another, with happiness shoved completely out of reach.

“We study for the next job, the next degree, the next promotion. Why stop at a degree when you can get a master?” he says, going on to pose another question:

“What happens when we snap ‘be happy’ off the end of this scribble and stick it on the beginning?”

Well, as it turns out, a lot. Happy people embrace life. They achieve more. They see an obstacle and they figure a way around it. They don’t quit.

So, what are the secrets of those who choose to feel happy and fulfilled? Let’s find out.