If you’ve watched a video, read a blog post, or follow personal development blog posts, you’ve come to understand that true happiness and fulfillment are an internal job. No other human being can make you feel happy — at least not sustainable happiness.
There are moments when others in your life help you to feel good, but happiness starts and blooms from inside of you. Happiness comes when you make and witness progress towards your goals. Happiness is real when you’re authentically living your life’s purpose.
If you’re struggling with how to build happiness habits consistently, here are four strategies to incorporate. You can live out happiness in an abundant way.
1. Make getting enough sleep a significant goal
Sleep is one of those life areas that we know we need more of it, but it often gets pushed aside because other things feel as if they’re more of a priority. One key to sustained success is having enough energy to accomplish your goals. You won’t have enough energy if you’re not consistently getting enough sleep.
One of the primary reasons people feel the way they do can be traced back to not getting enough sleep. A lack of sleep drains your energy, slows you down, and puts you in an irritable mood. Successful leaders do their best to get enough sleep as a part of incorporating healthy habits. Now, what is enough sleep? That will be different for each person and what their body dictates. It’s up to you to study yourself and give your body and mind the sleep it needs.
“It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.” – Dale Carnegie
2. Move your body and change your state
I’m not going to give you a rant about the need to exercise. There is more than enough material talking about the importance of being physically active. What you should understand is that every time you move your body, you change your state. Physical movement has an immediate effect on our feelings. If you’re mad, go for a short jog. If you’re feeling off, turn on some music and dance it out. If you’re sleepy, stand up, stretch, and breathe.
Moving your body is one of the purest ways to ensure proper energy management. It’s also essential to living a long life. Exercise and physical movement, along with giving your body the fuel (nutrition) it needs, helps you take on the hard work of becoming the best version of yourself.
Happiness happens with the right mindset, being in control of your feelings and emotions, and knowing how to get into a better state when something upsets you. Moving your body is a great way to practice happiness.
3. Create your ideal form of work
We spend so much time doing something to pay our bills and help us live a life free of financial stress. That may be a job or a business, but one way or another, it does have a tremendous effect on your life.
If you’re going to create happiness in your life, you have to create your ideal “earn a living” situation. If it’s going after a better job, use the Internet to learn where that job is, what it will take to secure it, and get to work. If it’s creating a business, take advantage of all the tools and technology at our disposal. Get clear on who you want to help and what you want to help them do. Put the pieces together.
Life is too short to spend a significant chunk of your week miserable and feeling financial stress. The path to a better working situation is not easy, but those that came before us have shown it’s possible. Find or create work that fulfills you, and you will be on the path to creating happiness because one of the most challenging areas of your life will be fulling your purpose.
“Happiness is a constant work-in-progress, because solving problems is a constant work-in-progress – the solutions to today’s problems will lay the foundation for tomorrow’s problems, and so on. True happiness occurs only when you find the problems you enjoy having and enjoy solving.” – Mark Manson
4. Get out of living the comparison loop
Social media and the open access we have to others has created a culture that feeds into comparison syndrome. We continuously see others’ success, and it can make us feel punny when our mind spirals. We see others win, and it fuels our bitterness, envy, and irritation. We are frustrated that it seems to be taking so long for us. The comparison bruises our ego.
If you’re going to live a happy life through healthy habits, you have to start living out your personal journey. This has to be about you vs. you every day, and that’s the only comparison you’ll allow.
You compete to do better than you did the day before. You vow to give each day your best, and the only companion you make is against the effort you make. This becomes about you becoming better and not worrying about being better than someone else.
It’s not a fantasy or myth that you can be happy every day, even when life is not going as planned. Happiness is a learned habit like anything else. You can train your mind, body, and spirit to do whatever it takes to live fulfilled.
Look at these four areas of your life and see how they’re lining up. The happiness you seek lies in the habits you’re practicing and building. You can be happy every day if you choose to be.