being happy matters

There are lots of ways to be happy: just Google it. But from the folks I interviewed for my book “Being Happy Matters”, I learned something crucial: we are each accountable for our own happiness. In fact, we have the power to choose happiness for ourselves by controlling how we feel.

Here’s a distillation of 7 key activities I discovered from them that I think can add happiness to your life:


Hang out with happy people: it's contagious; absorb their habits to become happier.
 
Happiness grows when you engage in the things you love to do.
 
Enjoy normalcy: take pleasure in the ordinary things in life.
 
Be loving; you'll get love back.
 
Simplify! Practice saying “No” to others to create time for yourself.
 
Learn how not to take stuff personally: a sense of humour is an incredible skill for happiness.
 
And finally, here’s the one that everyone I talked with feels is key …
 
Be grateful: focus on what you have, not on what you don't have.
 
My goal as a non-fiction author has always been to add happiness to my readers’ lives. I hope these 7 steps can do just that.

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