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February 14 2008

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How to be Happier With What You Have

happy, content, childBenjamin Franklin wisely said, “There are two ways to increase your wealth. Increase your means or decrease your wants. The best is to do both at the same time.”

In other words, if you are striving to be more successful, more joyous or more anything, it doesn’t mean you have to feel dissatisfied with your life right now.

In fact, you can be ambitious and content at the same time, and this Lifehack article has some great suggestions to do so, such as:

1. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket: Keep your interests diversified so one slip up won’t throw you off track.

2. Engineer your day: Experiment with changes in how you spend your time that can make your day more interesting, fun or fulfilling.

3. Break comparisons: Try not to compare yourself to others. Base your satisfaction on your life only.

The more you focus your mind on the joyful things in your life right now, the more frequently you will experience joy. Of course, the opposite also holds true, so if you focus on what you don’t have, then you will continually feel like your life is lacking something.

Your happiness is not tied to any material possession or external achievement, yet many people mistakenly intertwine their ability to be happy with such things. You may feel you can’t be happy until you buy a bigger house, get your Ph. D, become a size zero, or become extremely wealthy, but this is quite far from the truth. These things will not make you happy. Only YOU can make you happy.

Quite simply, you have the power to decide to be happy, right now, exactly as your life is at this moment.

If you need more inspiration to feel good about what you have right now, these 30 Simple Secrets to Happiness will help you see that your life can easily be filled with joy.

Sources:

  Lifehack.org September 25, 2007


Related Links:

  Simple Secrets of How to be Happy

  Increase Your Happiness by Limiting Choices!

  The Secret of How to Be Happy




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Posted On Jan 28, 2008
This wasn't mentioned directly. Service.

Happiness is as directly proportional to purposeful living as misery is tied to thinking about yourself. If you want to make comparrisons, think of how your gifts can help someone less fortunate. When you help another you can't help lifting your own spirit.


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Dex
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Posted On Jan 28, 2008
What great advice! 

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Posted On Jan 28, 2008
Dex, excellent point!

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Posted On Feb 16, 2008

I agree with Reeseacat, Dex.  As I read your comment, I remember reading about how Jack London, the writer, humanitarian, and socialist, would give strangers in need, money, when they wrote to him. He was spending (and giving away) more than was coming in from his book sales, etc. and died with debts of his own.

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Posted On Jan 25, 2008
Misery? Ambition? Not words in my vocabulary.

I'm not the only one who knows that more stuff will not make me happy, but boy howdy, sometimes it feels that way. People shop for recreation! It's like a sport! There's even a channel on TV where you can buy stuff you didn't know you couldn't live without! Is this a great country or what?

I think humans are status-driven animals as much as any other species with its pecking order. Regardless of my job title, I show that I outrank you with my Beemer, my Rolex and my McMansion. Or my Manolo Blahnik shoes and my Gucci handbag. And my credit card debt. What a sick rat race, but it seems to be in our DNA.

Not mine. I was off smelling the roses when they handed out the status gene. My suggestion: focus on satisfaction and contentment rather than the pursuit of happiness...and you may find all three a lot sooner.

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Posted On Jan 28, 2008
Well said Islander. I think it is important to have goals though. I have reached all the goals I have set so far even though I have not been passionate or overly ambitious about acheiving them. Just having that goal is often enough and it is amzing how you can often acheive them a lot sooner than you think you will. However I think goals such having a higher status than the Joneses is likely to lead to unhappiness but having goals such as being mortgage free are more realistic.

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Posted On Feb 14, 2008

Islander- I would love to have read what you said... your wisdom inspires me!  

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Posted On Feb 15, 2008

WE WANT ISLANDER BACK. I was reading some more articles and comments last night, and I could not get to Islander's comments.  What is going on?

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Posted On Jan 28, 2008
That's all good advice.  I am not a super material kind of guy, BUT....  I get frustrated with how thing ought to be as opposed to how things are.  For me to get things to how they ought to be it is going to take a lot of money.  I ought to live on a few acres with a huge green house, clean water and an independent energy source and I am caught up in my own head on achieving this end.  Realistically I need 10-15 thousand dollars a month in passive residual income to achieve this...  not impossible but I've got to engage in this rat race to do it.  That being said, I am always telling my wife that I feel very lucky everyday to have all that we have from our health to each other.   It is just hard to  be content with paying  electric co's and  big oil co's.  Ya know?  On line communities like this one definitely help ease my mind.  Thanks.

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Posted On Jan 28, 2008
Jeff - these are very similar to the goals we had and we have largely acheived them. We did not have the 10 - 15 thousand dollar a month passive income either.  Keep up the focus and you will get there.

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Posted On Feb 14, 2008

It has been said that happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on someone without spilling some on yourself. (to Dex)  -V.

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Posted On Feb 14, 2008

Ooh, nicely said! I like that!

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Posted On Jan 28, 2008
I've said this before and I'll say it again.....to find TRUE hapiness , start with God!

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Posted On Jan 29, 2008
Glad to hear somebody say it!

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Posted On Feb 14, 2008

Wow 4Hand Healthy I could not have said it better myself.  I was the most miserable person on this earth until I started my search for God. Right now my husband and I don't have much, although more than others, but we do have God, and they can take everything away from you but they can't take Him.  Its free, all you have to do is want it.

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