Nine Secrets of Happy People by Shawn Doyle

Happy people do certain things that unhappy people don’t. Want to be even happier? Check through this list to see which ones you are already doing and which ones you need to do more. 

Have you ever noticed that there are some people who just seem to be happy all the time? I know you have met them—they are people who love life, who have energy, and who seem to enjoy everything they do. They are so darn pleasant to be around. Some people even wonder if they are really that happy, but guess what? They are! So what is their secret? It’s actually pretty simple: Happy people do certain things that unhappy people don’t. Want to be even happier? Check through this list to see which ones you are already doing and which ones you need to do more: 

1. They count their blessings. Happy people, no matter what, sit down on a regular basis and consider what they are grateful for. They are grateful that they’re employed, they are grateful that they have their health, they are grateful that they have their loved ones, family, and friends, etc. So in order to be happy, it is important not to take what you have for granted and to understand the things that you should be grateful for. 

2. They surround themselves with positive people. One habit of happy people is that they do not spend very much time with people who are negative or pessimistic. Nope. They instead spend their time with people who are upbeat, optimistic, encouraging, and fun to be around. There is no question that the quality of your life is in direct correlation with the quality of the people you spend time with. If you spend your time around unhappy people who growl a lot, you’ll be less happy. If you spend your time around happy people, their happiness is downright contagious. 

3. They enjoy the small things in life. Happy people do not have to wait for the “big events”—they make sure to enjoy the smaller things in life around them, whether it is a beautiful flower that bloomed in the yard, the belly laugh of a baby, a lovely sunset, or sharing a chuckle with a colleague at work. None of these things in themselves are earth-shattering, but happy people take the time to notice them and other small moments that make life so very sweet. 

4. They say “Oh well” when things go wrong. When things go wrong, happy people don’t spend their time dwelling on it; they say “oh well” and acknowledge that it could’ve been worse. If a flight is delayed, they say, “Well, at least it didn’t get canceled.” Happy people do not dwell on negative events—they just say, “Next.” 

5. They help other people for absolutely no reason. Happy people help other people for no reason other than the fact that helping other people makes them happy. Opening the door for someone, doing someone a favor without being asked, showing kindness to another human being, not only makes the other person feel better but it also makes a happy person feel happier because they are doing something good. 

6. They expose themselves to positive materials. Happy people do not spend a lot of time watching violent movies or focusing on bad news on TV. They instead spend their time taking in inspirational and motivational content. They watch movies that uplift them and bring them hope. They read books that inspire and motivate them.  

7. They do things that bring them joy. Happy people have made a list of the things that bring them joy, and they try as much as possible to do these things on a regular basis. They engage in hobbies and activities that they have a passion for and that make them feel happier. It may be baking a cake, assembling a model airplane, or working out—they’ve identified the life activities that bring them joy, and they do them. 

8. They say “please” and “thank you.” When someone does something for them, they say “Thank you very much,” and when they need something they’re polite about it: “Can you please send me the information that I requested?” They also go out of their way to give other people compliments that are authentic and that make the other person feel good about themselves.  

9. They choose to be happy. There are many people in life who have faced a great deal of adversity. However, when you meet those people, you don’t know it because they’ve simply chosen to be happy. Yes, it may sound strange that you can actually make the decision to decide to think happy thoughts instead of negative ones. When people choose to be happy, they are deciding to be the architects of their own lives. They are deciding what attitude they are going to adopt, and guess what? That changes how they perceive the world at large. 

Try to put these ideas into practice, and you will wake up every day as a happier person. 

This article originally appeared here on HuffPost and has been edited for inclusion on the Sound Wisdom Blog. 

For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series. The latest book in this series is Jumpstart Your Happiness: Your Jolts to Prosperity, Motivation, & Living with Intention, which you can preorder now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight Books, and other retailers. 

Living the Lottery Life by Shawn Doyle

I saw a news story the other night where a reporter on the street was interviewing people and asking them what they would do if they won the lottery. Many people said that they would travel or that they would buy exotic cars, a new house, or some other luxury extravagance. What I found most interesting is that when asked, “Would you stay at your job?” every single person said, “No, I would leave my job immediately.” That was every single person. 

This story really got me thinking about the psychology of the lottery. People often say that if they were to win those millions of dollars, they would finally be happy. But the big question is, why would that be? As the old saying goes, “Most people are living lives of quiet desperation.”  

Well, I have some good news and some bad news: It is highly unlikely that you will ever win the lottery—I guess that is the bad news. The good news is that you can begin to live the lottery life starting tomorrow. What do I mean by that? I mean that you can create your own life and win! 

1. Your job—If you truly hate your job enough to quit immediately upon winning the lottery, then guess what? You may want to think about the work that you do, because obviously you do not have a passion for what you do. First, mister, no one is making you do it. After all, you don’t have to work there. You could find another job. You could switch industries. You could find a new profession. 
   
   I was recently doing a full-day training program at a company, and when I asked one of the team members how long she had been with the company, she told me, “Fourteen years.” When I responded, “Oh, that is great.” She said, “No, it’s not. In fact, I have been here fourteen years too long.” I am a realist and not an idealist, and I know that you just can’t up and quit your job tomorrow. That is not realistic, and you do have mouths to feed and bills to pay. I get that. What I am saying is that starting tomorrow, you need to begin developing a plan for doing the thing that you have a passion for doing. The key, then, is to do something every day to move closer to that goal. You can work at your real job while in your spare time working on creating your dream job. There are many cases of people who have reinvented their careers and have ended up living very happy lives doing the work that they love. 

2. Your dreams—Maybe you dream of having a huge mansion. Maybe you dream of having a high-speed boat or traveling all over the world to exotic locales. I’m sure you believe that winning the lottery would help you achieve those dreams very quickly because the lottery would pay for them. But here is my question: What are you waiting for? Go ahead and start working on those dreams now instead of standing at your local convenience store buying twenty tickets and hoping that one of them is “the one.” Why not take some time today and write out your goals in every part of your life. Create an action plan and start working on it now. Find out what training and development may be available for what it is you’re trying to do, sign up for a college class, start learning a trade. Why not sit down today and figure out how you can have the home of your dreams; how you can have that boat; how, through your work and effort, you can travel the world to exotic locales without being sponsored by the Powerball? 
   
   You may think I’m crazy, but I also believe that if you achieve your dreams through your own hard work and sweat equity, you will feel much better about it than if somebody handed you a pile of cash that you really did earn. If you don’t believe me, there have been many cases of people who won the lottery, then a few years after winning lost everything and said that they were miserable because they felt like they did not deserve the money. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t turn down the money if someone handed it to me; I’m just saying I think you appreciate it more when you earn it and you worked for it. 

3. Your happiness—I hear people say this all the time about the lottery: that if they won, they would finally be happy. What if you never win the lottery? Would you never be happy? Are you not happy now? So instead of waiting for some random balls to come down the chute and change your life, why not figure out what would make you truly happy now? 
   
   I have often written that you are the architect of your own life, and I believe that. Take some time and analyze your life and figure out the things that make you happy, and those are the things you want to keep doing. Here’s a suggestion from the land of the obvious: if you have things that make you unhappy or miserable or that fill you with sadness and despair, change them, get rid of them, or do something about it. As far as I know, we only have the chance to live one life, and to me life is way too short to sit around and not be happy. You can decide how to handle every aspect of your life.  

So here’s what I want you to do: don’t stand around with your fingers crossed, watching the screen to see if your numbers come up. Instead, spend your time and energy creating your own lottery life, because the reality is it’s the only one that you can truly control.

For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series, The Sun Still Rises, The Leadership Manifesto, and Two Months to Motivation.

Holiday Happiness by Jim Stovall

Everyone wants to have happiness for themselves and their loved ones around the holidays. We wish people “Merry Christmas,” “Happy Holidays,” and “Happy New Year,” but rarely do we consider what really makes us happy during the holiday season and throughout the year. If you think back on past holiday seasons when you were particularly happy, you will likely discover it had more to do with gifts you gave, people you were with, and activities you enjoyed rather than something you received.  

While it is the season for giving, if we want to make people really happy, we need to look beyond just the standard stuff we buy at the mall, wrap up, and hand to someone. We need to explore the concept of sharing an experience, giving of ourselves, or engaging in a giving activity with our loved ones.  

I often ask people to share with me their favorite holiday memories. Among my favorites are people who recount the experience of going as a family to serve homeless people holiday meals, giving toys or bicycles to less fortunate children, or simply spending quality time with special friends or loved ones. I actually have a friend who received a luxury automobile with a giant bow wrapped around it, parked in the driveway, as a Christmas gift, but when I asked her to share her favorite holiday memory, it involved going through a family photo album with her great aunt.  

We’ve often heard it said but seldom do we act upon the fact that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” In my novel The Ultimate Gift and the movie based on that book, a prominent theme is the gift of giving. This concept is foreign to many people because, with the rush and commercialism during the holiday season, giving can seem like more of a chore or an obligation than a gift.  

We are never too busy to give a kindness, share a memory, or engage in service to others. This time of year, people seem to be worried about spending too much money and overcharging their credit cards, but giving of yourself and sharing memories remain no-cost but priceless elements in the gift of giving.  

As you go through your day today, give the gifts that matter. Share your time and your love. 

Today’s the day! 

This and other motivational pieces by bestselling author Jim Stovall can be found in his latest collection of columns, Wisdom for Winners Volume Four, an official publication of the Napoleon Hill Foundation.

Chief Happiness Officer Strategy #3: Encourage Wellness by Simon T. Bailey

Paul Zane Pilzer wrote a book titled The Wellness Revolution: How to Make a Fortune in the Next Trillion Dollar Industry. Pilzer is a Harvard-trained economist and thought leader around this whole wellness movement. One of the things he talks about is how businesses don’t want to be in the healthcare business because healthcare costs too much on the back end. 

The job of the Chief Happiness Officer is to encourage wellness and well-being on the front end. Invite people to think about things like: Are they eating properly? Are they taking mental breaks? Are they getting enough rest? (Arianna Huffington has written a plethora of articles and devoted a whole book to the idea of a “sleep revolution” that shatters the exaltation of the sleep-deprived executive. Huffington argues that sleep is the new competitive edge, and she encourages everyone to get more sleep in order to succeed in work and life.) 

For the good of both the holistic person and the organization, the Chief Happiness Officer must be the proponent within the organization of prioritizing things like meditation and sleep rooms. People are spending 8 to 10 to 12 hours a day in the business. They’re at work more than they’re at home, so businesses have to be places that really care about their employees in order to earn the right to their best work. 

Another example of something the Chief Happiness Officer should consider is, how do we think about nutrition that’s offered in the employee cafeteria or in break areas? One of my favorite examples is my experience at the Lynda.com offices. They have probably one of the healthiest employee cafeterias I’ve ever been in. There’s no fried food, everything is green, there’s a lot of kale, and what that said to me is they care about what employees put into their bodies. 

Provide an abundance of physical fitness resources that will cater to multiple interests. For example, go beyond just having a fitness center relationship with one gym. Consider: How do you begin to collaborate with other gyms that have a different format, like CrossFit or Pure Barre? 

The Chief Happiness Officer literally can increase employee happiness and boost the bottom line by offering preventative measures. They can help people think about what they need mentally and how much sleep they’ve had, and they can help ensure that people exercise and eat well. Show people the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle, because if they live a healthy lifestyle they’ll have longevity—not just for the business, but for their loved ones and for themselves. 

The original post appeared here on Simon T. Bailey’s website and has been slightly modified for republication. For more inspiration from the author, pick up a copy of his books Shift Your Brilliance: Harnessing the Power of You, Inc. and Brilliant Living: 31 Insights to Creating an Awesome Life