There are several commonalities among happy and successful people, specifically their personality traits or “ways of being.” Incorporating some of these tips for a happy life are easy, and some not so much. What is for certain, however, by adding only one of these tips for a happy life, your happiness will be noticeably increased. That’s a promise. My experience and observations of happy and successful people over the years, not to mention my own practicing, have allowed me to narrow the most impactful tips for a happy life down to the following eight.
1. Live with Integrity
To experience quantum leaps in your happiness and results, follow this tip for a happy life by making it a rule to say what you are going to do, do what you say, and do it for no other reason than because you said so. If you live your life by 1) the Golden Rule [treat others as you would like others to treat you], and 2) making declarations backed by follow-through, everything will miraculously, almost magically, come together and start to work. Without integrity, nothing works. Integrity is a prerequisite for workability, and workability is a prerequisite for performance, achievement, and success. In most people’s book, that equates to happiness.
2. Be Honest
A very successful businessman once gave me this tip for a happy life, he said, “When it comes to producing success, wealth and overall happiness, there is no more important quality a human can have than that of honesty.” Be impeccably honest with yourself and others because all successful relationships are based on trust. Honesty begets trust. Develop a reputation for being honest. People will give their friendship, their loyalty and their business to honest people.
3. Be Responsible
Happiness and success of any magnitude requires one to accept responsibility for their actions and their results. In the final evaluation, the one quality that all happy and successful people have is the willingness to take responsibility. It takes a big person to step up and take responsibility, not only for their own actions, but for those of the people they lead. A big tip for a happy life is to be responsible.
If I could sum up my regrets into one, it would be that I regret not taking more responsibility for my business the first time around. I placed so much of my destiny in the hands of others, sitting around waiting for other people to come through. If you do this, you will set yourself up for endless disappointment. Take responsibility for your own efforts, mistakes, and results…and happiness, not to mention greatness, will be yours.
4. Believe
There are no tips for a happy life more true than “change your beliefs and you change your life.” Belief is paramount to happiness. The belief in one’s dreams, the belief in one’s self, and the belief that what one is doing will manifest their life’s desires could quite possibly be the one trait that without it, happiness and success will forever elude you. In fact, if you don’t believe in you, your dreams and your ability to achieve them, you must come up with another dream you can believe in. If you don’t believe, it will not be.
5. Be Charitable
This tip for a happy life doesn’t require a whole lot of explanation. “It’s better to give than receive” is an idea we’ve all heard growing up. Simply put, it’s better to give because it feels better. Regard for other people is an innate quality of all human beings. The giver, when acting out of love, is the happiest person within the transaction.
It’s been said that we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. A fulfilled life is given to you by what you give to others. Albert Einstein said, “It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.” The happy and successful do.
6. Be Courageous
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather action in the presence of fear.
Fear can be a good thing. Fear is a great teacher. I have come to know the “fear zone” as the “happy zone” or the “money zone.” If happiness and money are at the foundation of your definition of success, you’ll want to know that it will never be yours until you are courageous. Living in fear, or living with a lack of courage, is the biggest happiness and success killer there is. Your life will expand, or shrink, in direct proportion to the size of your courage.
Happiness and success come about as a result of habits. We become happy and successful by doing courageous acts. Like confidence, you gain courage by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. Happiness and success come about by consistently doing the things you think you cannot do. Make it a habit to face your fears and your fears will disappear.
7. Be Understanding
Everything you will ever want out of life that ultimately defines your happiness and success will be accessed or acquired through the cooperation of other people. Great understanding and communication is required to elicit the cooperation of people, and it is a common trait found in happy successful people. Habit #5 from the classic by Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood.
Your happiness and success will be in direct proportion to your ability to connect with people, and people predominantly use understanding and language to connect. The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, and one of the greatest tips for a happy life I’ve ever been given is to use them proportionately. Listen twice as much as you speak, then confirm with the other that you do understand. Your environment, and the people within it, will almost magically begin to conspire in your favor when you do.
8. Be Goal-Oriented
If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. The logic is inarguable. It is vital to any endeavor’s fulfillment to begin with the end in mind. Establishing the desired outcome before taking the first step will eliminate counterproductive confusion and frustration.
“The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us and keep us on track, but they are essential to keeping us alive. The more accomplishments I chalk up, I have found that it is who you become along the way in the pursuit of your goals that is the true reward and what leads to happiness. The experiences you will acquire while performing what is necessary to achieve your goals are what creates a person of value, a happy person.
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