Happiness is something that we all yearn for, (I still haven’t found someone who intentionally wants to be unhappy) philosophically, the word happiness originated from the Greek concept of Eudemonia which refers to the good life and flourishing while psychologically, happiness is the mental and emotional state of well being dictated by pleasant or positive feelings that range from intense joy to contentment.
So what is happiness? That “thing” that we all search for but never seem to get our hands on, personally, I believe happiness is contentment and being grateful for the things and people in your life. At times we make some mistakes by looking to the wrong things as our source of happiness which never truly makes us happy. I also believe that happiness and productivity go hand in hand, and this is where contentment comes in, if you are not happy with your current situation in your life, you will have to take steps to change that situation and your productivity will determine how big and how many of these steps you are going to take. Ever since I started using these 10 Proven tips to maximize your productivity this year, my productivity went through the roof! And I can honestly say I am quite happy.
There has been a lot of research into happiness since the early 1900s with social psychology, happiness economics and gerontology (the study of the aspects of ageing) appearing among the scientific disciplines exploring happiness. With so much research into happiness, scientists have found very insightful and helpful practices that if you incorporate into your day to day activities; you are bound to be happier than you are right now.
Start using these practices today and you will very likely increase your personal happiness:
Figure out what is causing your current state of unhappiness
You cannot put together the happiness skills that you desire if you have no idea which ones are creating problems for you, take this quiz to find out your happiness weaknesses and strengths. This will give you a better understanding of your skills and how to deal with your weaknesses and build on your strengths.
Increase your self-confidence
Let me just tell you this now for free, trying to be happy when you a filled with doubts that you can actually do it is as pointless as trying to fill a gurney (Gunia) bag with water. So it is very important to work on your self-confidence so that you can prove to yourself that you do have the ability to improve your happiness. Start small things like taking better care of yourself, dress better, be thankful and spend more time doing fun things, these will give you a quick confidence boost that you can build on.
Speed up your progress by feeling better about yourself
Let’s face it, you cannot read a book expecting to lose weight, you cannot be happy if your focus is on skills, activities or things that do not bring you happiness. A research by Psychology Today’s Tchiki Davis PhD shows that out of all the skills, one presents itself as being very closely related with happiness i.e. having a positive view of yourself. You can achieve this by identifying, noting and focusing on your positive qualities and strengths.
Avoid burning yourself out
Working on the skills you need to be happier is not going to be easy, but then again, nothing worthwhile is. It’s going to take time and energy, so you need to spend your time and energy on things that are linked to your end goal – being happy. To avoid burning yourself out, you will have to create a balance between your work and your life by using proven tips that maximize efficiency and productivity while minimizing energy expenditure.
Focus on the positives
“The Power of Neuroplasticity” is a very insightful book that I highly recommend to you, it talks about how our brains respond with regards to our environment and our thoughts, if your environment and or thoughts are negative, your brain will assume a negative mode and vice versa. Thanks to research into Neuroplasticity, we now know this and we can change this by focusing on the positive which in turn strengthens the parts of our brains that remember positive things.
Reduce the time you spend on social media
If you can, quit it all together. I did, and my world didn’t end. In fact, it got better. Whether we would want to admit it or not, social media has an impact on our happiness, a negative one for that fact. Start with taking breaks and see if it works for you. Changing how you use social media can increase your happiness. You can check out this list of Apps that can help you with this.
Develop a growth mindset
The belief that we have the power to change our situations is what a growth mindset is all about. This is the most important of all, because if you don’t believe that you can do something about your state of happiness, then you are not even going to try and change things. You can do this by acknowledging and embracing your imperfections, learning new skills and other ways you can grow and expand your mind.
Mind your money
The way you spend your money affects how much you can do and this is going to impact your level of happiness. If you don’t spend money on material things that cannot bring you happiness, you will have more money to spend on experiences and investing in yourself by learning new skills. Keep a keen eye on your spending habits.
Get in touch with yourself
Get in touch with yourself and seek clarity, our feelings have a very strong influence on our happiness and the regular assessment of your feelings is fundamental in increasing your happiness. Look for clarity in your emotions, try and figure out your feelings and what’s causing them. Meditation has helped a lot of people with this and the amount of information available on meditation is massive, there even applications made specifically for meditation.
Indulge your imagination
Some of the greatest people in history were people who embraced their imagination, people like Albert Einstein and Walt Disney were very imaginative, and imagination calls for creativity. The more creative you get the more confidence you will have in your ability to improve your happiness.
Good tidings in your pursuit of happiness!
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