Becoming Awesome – The 10 Keys To Happiness

So the last little while I’ve been in a bit of rut, the site has suffered partially because of that (I am so so sorry, we should be back up and running here soon, this time better than ever).

Besides that I’m about to embark on a new chapter of my life, which is both exciting and terrifying but as I say goodbye to my friends there was some advice I wanted to leave a dear friend that I’m leaving behind, I though some of you might be able to enjoy/benefit as well.

Anyways here is the secret to having a happy life, right here. I still slip and forget to do them from time to time, but I do know they work, try it and you’ll see.

1. Get Things done – the sense of accomplishment alone will make you happy, not to mention your moving forward in your life, being productive and keeping busy. This is probably the number one thing you can do.

2. Service – Do things for other people because you care about them, one caveat though, it actually needs to be selfless service, there can’t be any underlying thing your trying to get from them by doing it, otherwise it will just lead to frustration and disappointment when they don’t quire react in the way you were hoping.
So go do something nice for someone, and don’t expect any reward, recognition or love for doing it, just do it and you’ll feel incredible.

3. Gratitude – This is the secret sauce of happiness, it’s what adds the flavor and is pretty much as important as getting things done. Start small, find little things everyday that your grateful for, it will make everything more enjoyable, and the more you become accustomed to or trained in gratitude the happier you will be.

4. Enjoying The Little Things – This is almost a subset of gratitude, but seriously go get some bubble wrap and try not to smile while your popping it. Pick a dandelion and pretend it’s a real flower. Go watch a few clouds and see the dragons and unicorns in them. It helps.

5. Doing Things You Enjoy – you like music, awesome go play a little everyday. How about art? Do it. Curling up with a good book, make the time. Don’t go overboard to where your neglecting getting things done or being social, but make some time for the things you love, you’ll thank me later.

6. Don’t Forget To Be Social – it’s easy when your overwhelmed to say you don’t have time, just as easy to loose track of time until you realize you haven’t talked to someone in months. Or if you really struggle with depression to shut people out trying to “spare them” but having people in your life, people you like can be the source of a lot of joy, not to mention an awesome support system for those times that you are down. So Don’t neglect your friends.

7. Have Direction And Purpose – When your striving for something and not just going day to day, life can be incredible. Have a purpose a gaol, remember that your life is not your own, that everyone in it needs you to be the best that you can be, start living for them and for what you know you can do to make the world a better place.

8. Always Be Where You Are – also called being present or experiencing mindfulness. If your daydreaming or worrying about the next thing, or being stressed about what’s already happend, then you aren’t actually there so how could you actually enjoy what’s going on? if your there you can enjoy things, the sights, the smells, the great conversation, the people around you, seeing squirrels do combination par-core and jujitsu. If your actually where you are life is sweet.

9. Accept Things, AKA Being Honest – The truth can hurt, but like most kinds of medicine (especially surgery) it’s what comes before any healing can. Not standing on a scale because the numbers are painful to look at doesn’t change what they are, and living in denial about it will only cause the problem to be neglected and never fixed. The other approach the opposite it to accept things as they are, just admit to yourself “yeah I’m 260 pounds, and that’s ok” you accept it, you become ok with it, so now you can comfortably start taking the steps to overcome it. But sometimes just accepting things without the intention of changing it is enough to be happy. So accept things as they are, and start being honest with yourself.

10. Exercise – If gratitude is the secret sauce, this is the meat of it. Exercise not only helps to release endorphins (which make you happy) but by getting healthier your brain functions better, you think clearer, your less tired, you get more things done, and also things like high levels of fat on your body actually help contribute to sour moods (lots of hormones going on there, a topic for another day). Exercise everyday, it doesn’t have to be much, but just do it, it will cure most depression in most people.

Bonus – 11. Cut The Fat – Eliminate The Worthless and The Negative – theres a quote by freud that basically says before you diagnose yourself with depression first make sure your not surrounded by jerks (edited sorry, gotta keep it clean). Sometimes we just have negative people in our lives, often we would be better off if we didn’t. But more than that we have a lot of unnecessary junk in our lives, spending too much time on facebook, too much time playing video games, too much of anything really that doesn’t further your goals or contribute to your happiness is probably something you should start to cut back on and begin removing from your life.

Double Bonus – 12. Just Be Happy – Zen Philosophy will teach you to stop chasing happiness and to just be happy. I know your thinking to yourself “right Mike, and how do you do that?” I can’t really explain it, you just kind of do, try it as best you can, and it will help.

So anyways follow those steps and your on your way, if you can’t do all of them do what you can, if it’s hard to get going on any one of them, just do what you can little by little and if you do, eventually nothing will be able to stop you.

Stay Awesome
Mike Out

 

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(after all we can all be awesome together, right?)