Finding Happiness - FIVE Tips to Help in Your Pursuit of Happiness
Maxwell Maltz defined happiness as a state of mind in which our thinking is pleasant, at least for a good portion of time. Pursuit of happiness represents actions that individuals deliberately engage in for the purpose of becoming happier. This can mean different things to different people.
“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” -Ben Franklin
Here are FIVE tips to help you with this pursuit of happiness:
1. Stay Healthy: Someone rightly said “Health is Wealth”; one can extend that to say “Health is Happiness” as well. All the wonderful tips that are supposed to lead us on the road to happiness would serve little purpose, if we spend most of our time and energies stressed out and anxious about our health. By taking care of our health, we set ourselves on a strong footing to pursue other avenues that we expect would become our keys to happiness.
2. Set Goals: Working on long-term goals is a sure-fire way to find happiness. Setting goals that you consider as deeply meaningful to yourself, and taking steadfast steps towards attaining them, would provide an immeasurable amount of satisfaction.
The key to finding happiness is the goals should resonate with your psyche. These could be material goals, or relationship goals or spiritual goals; they should strike a chord deep inside you, and attaining them should add immense value to your being. Having multiple short-term sub-goals to track your progress towards a main goal is an excellent way to keep you motivated along your journey.
3. Pursue Hobbies: Pursuing hobbies is another easier, but equally effective way to find happiness. A hobby can be anything that you really enjoy doing. Identify the things you really like to do, and spend time doing them.
If you are a reading enthusiast, there are a very few things that come close to spending a couple of hours by yourself in a library or book store. If you are a sportsperson, it could be a couple of hours on the field, a few times a week. As long as it seems consistent with your innate self, and engages or challenges you just right physically or mentally, a hobby can provide a deep sense of contentment, and goes a long way in helping you tread the road to happiness.
4. Help Others: Very few things come close to the joy of giving, especially to those in need. Help others taste happiness by giving, without expectation of reciprocity, and it comes back to you at least two-fold. This is not necessarily limited to donating material goods to the needy. It also includes doing those little helpful things, or otherwise bringing joy to your family or other people you are involved with, thereby deepening your inter-personal relationships.
So how to find happiness? Simple answer - Give Happiness!
5. Share Happiness: An effective way to multiply happiness is to share it with others. Share your happy moment with the next person. That in itself is a great source of happiness.
“But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?” -Albert Camus