If you could manage to learn these FIVE principles, make them apart of your life, and live them every day, you would be guaranteed to be a happier person. Most of them you already know but have simply forgotten, some you may never mastered. Regardless of who you are, where you are in your life, and where you want to go, these FIVE principles will help to get you to where you want to be and you’ll be a more content happier person.
1. Love and Accept Yourself.
There’s a reason why this is first on the list, it really is that important. Some people think self-love means being vane or narcissistic; it doesn’t. It means accepting yourself as you are, and believing that you are deserving of all the best that life has to offer. Acceptance and self-love is not a conditional thing. It’s not “I will accept myself completely as soon as I lose 20 pounds” or “I will start loving myself when others start loving me”. There are no conditions attached to self-love and self-acceptance. Don’t make it any more difficult than it needs to be. Self-acceptance does not have to be earned; it’s a given. You get it for free just by being alive. It comes down to a simple decision more than anything. Each day you simply need to say to yourself, “I LOVE AND ACCEPT ME”.
2. Stop Worrying.
For many people this is much easier said than done. However if there was something to be gained by worrying I would be the first to endorse it. But the simple truth is, it’s a waste of time and energy, and it may even be unhealthy. Human beings are strange creatures. We sometimes think that if something is out of our hands we can exercise a measure of control over it by worrying. (It’s about a need to feel in control). Let us say for example that you just took an exam that is required for your job. You then spend the next several days worrying whether or not you passed or what score you got. Does it do any good to worry about it? Will worrying make the score better than it is? Certainly not, but in our minds, we are at least doing something (we’re thinking about it). Whenever you find yourself worrying about something try, to remind yourself that you’ve done your best and that’s all any one can do. Then just try to let it go. After awhile you will find yourself worrying about things less.
3. Take Control of Your Thoughts and Feelings.
In a world where so much of what happens is “out of our control”, one of the few things that we do get to control is what we think and how we feel. We sometimes forget that our thoughts belong to us and that we are not controlled by circumstances outside of ourselves. Remember the quote, “Life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I choose to react to it.”? Remember that no one but you can make you think or feel a certain way. That goes for the good feelings and the bad. Just because someone compliments you, it doesn’t mean that you will automatically feel better. Just like someone’s criticism has no power to hurt you, unless you decide to believe it and thus empower it. Choosing to believe something and embrace it is what makes something real. Don’t surrender your thoughts and feelings to someone else, they are yours and yours alone to control.
4. Be True to You.
Perhaps the most profound line ever written by Mr. William Shakespeare was, “This above all, to thine own self be true.” Sometimes we go through life trying to please others by acting a certain way or pretending to be someone we’re not. Whether it’s to be popular, to be accepted, or because of some internal need for approval. One can never be truly happy by marching to the beat of someone else’s drum. Living a life of integrity means being true to the person that you are no matter what others may think. Never compromise your beliefs or principles just to please someone else. It’s a guaranteed way to make yourself miserable.
5. Don’t Take Life too seriously.
Life can and should be a wonderful adventure. One of the biggest causes of depression, stress, and unhappiness is that we begin to take life and ourselves too seriously. We need to learn to see the humor in ourselves and in all situations. Those who can keep a light heart and maintain an almost a child-like approach to things, tend to be the happiest. As people, get older we sometimes feel like every negative experience, every obstacle, and every challenge is a matter of life and death. Try to look at life’s challenges as opportunities for learning. Remember that very few things are as bad as we sometimes make them out to be, and no matter how bad things are, they usually do get better.