How we achieve happiness can be different for each one of us. Our passions, expectations, life experiences, and even our personalities all contribute to the level of happiness we experience in our lives. Some find happiness in their careers while others prefer the bliss found in their marriages or other intimate relationship.

No matter how you define happiness for yourself, there are certain universal and time-proven strategies to bring, and sustain, more happiness into your life. The following 14 ways to live a happy life can be adapted and even customized to fit your needs. Over time, these strategies will become positive and life-changing habits that will begin to bring more happiness, joy and peace into your life.

1. Notice What’s Right

Some of us see the glass as being half-full, while others see the glass as half-empty. The next time you are caught in traffic, begin thinking how nice it is to have a few moments to reflect on the day, focus on a problem you have been trying to solve, or brainstorm on your next big idea. The next time you get in the slow line at the grocery store, take the opportunity to pick up a tabloid magazine and do some “guilty pleasure” reading. Take all that life throws out you and reframe it with what’s right about the situation. At the end of the day, you will more content, at peace and happy. Take the time to begin to notice what’s right and see the world change in front of your eyes.

2. Be Grateful

How many times do you say the words “thank you,” in a day? How many times do you hear these same words? If you are doing the first thing, saying the “thank yous,” the latter will naturally happen. Learn to be grateful and you will be open to receive an abundance of joy and happiness.

3. Remember the Kid You Were

Do you remember how to play? I’m not referring to playing a round of golf or a set of tennis. I’m talking about playing like you did when you were a child – a game of tag; leap frog, or street baseball when the bat is a broken broom handle and the bases are the parked cars. One way to find or maintain your happiness is to remember the kid you were and play!
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Staying motivated is problem that is both simple and complicated at the same time. It’s simple because the key to staying motivated is to find what drives you and connect that to whatever you do. It’s complicated because if that advice worked all the time, you wouldn’t ever fall into a slump.

Anyone who’s started a project longer than three weeks can tell you that motivation isn’t the problem. Finding something that drives you to get started isn’t hard. The difficulty comes when, several months later, you need to keep going. Where does motivation come from, and how can you make it last?

Static and Dynamic Motivation

The reason staying motivated is hard, I believe, is because we make the mistake that all motivation is the same. The motivation to get started and the motivation to get finished are actually quite different. Trying to pursue one when you need the other pushes you into a slump.

As a quick aside, I arrived at these ideas after reading Robert Pirsig’s book, Lila. It’s the intellectual sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and it’s definitely worth reading. In this book, Pirsig discusses the idea that reality is based on Dynamic and Static Quality. I’d like to extend his idea into the realm of what drives people.

The two types of motivation I’m referring to are dynamic and static motivation.
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Sometimes life is traveling along quite nicely, then - BANG - for some reason you fall into a slump. You know the signs: low energy, lack of motivation, a don’t-give-a-f attitude and maybe even depression. What is harder to know, however, is how to pull yourself out of such a slump.

Of course one option is to roll with it and hope it wears off. A better option, however, is to implement some strategies that will boost your mood and hopefully get you back on track. I am all too familiar with such slumps, so I would like to share with you the following 5 strategies that I have personally found to be most effective in counteracting them:

1. Ditch the Routine

I enjoy my daily routine, but every so often I need to throw it out the window for the sake of my sanity. Instead of waking at my normal time of 5am, I will turn off my alarm and wake up at my leisure. Or, I might leave my ipod at home and just enjoy the sounds of everyday life as I travel to and from work. Sometimes I even find that acts that are seemingly against best practice - eg getting drunk, eating greasy takeout or lying on the couch watching mindless television - are for some reason psychologically beneficial. Click here to continue »

One of the most popular articles I’ve ever written covered the subject of building self confidence. The chief criticism of this article was that you can’t just decide to be confident. You either have confidence or you don’t.

This type of thinking is flat out wrong and harmful to those who subscribe to it. The reason you CAN choose to become confident is the confidence feedback loop.

You might not be able to control your level of confidence, but you can control your actions. You can choose to act in ways that confident people act, even if you aren’t confident. I’ve experience that simply acting confident helps, but an even more important factor is the perception of others.

As one astute commenter pointed out, there is no outward difference between a truly confident person and a person who is posing as confident. The outside signals are the same, so observers perceive both people as confident. They treat both people with the admiration and respect commanded by confident people.

This is the confidence feedback loop. Once others start to treat you like a confident person, you start to believe it. The confidence you were faking before becomes real, leading to more positive feedback, leading to more confidence. It’s a virtuous cycle.