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How you can work towards a happy life

Guest post by: Andrew Rondeau

Article Overview: Last night, my wife and I watched a movie called “A Simple Plan”. It started with a guy saying how happy he was with his life. He had a good job, steady income, a loving wife and some good friends. He was happy. Then with his brother and friend, they found millions of dollars and from then on, everything went wrong. He argued with his wife and brother. The stress of everything got too much and eventually he burnt the money.

How you can work towards a happy life

Last night, my wife and I watched a movie called "A Simple Plan". It started with a guy saying how happy he was with his life. He had a good job, steady income, a loving wife and some good friends. He was happy.

Then with his brother and friend, they found millions of dollars and from then on, everything went wrong.

He argued with his wife and brother. The stress of everything got too much and eventually he burnt the money.

At the end, the film finished as it started except the guy was no longer happy.

I summarized a 2 hour film in a couple of sentences but this guy really thought he was happy, then found all this money and thought he could be even happier. It turned out the complete opposite for him.

For me, the secret to a happy life is in being optimistic; to always see the glass as half-full. The hard part comes when we encounter roadblocks along the way.

It takes a lot of practice to become a positive person, but once we do become that kind of person, we will live happier lives.

Remember, happiness is not a state of mind that can be achieved with just a snap of our fingers. Happiness is a choice we make and it is the attitude we need to implant in ourselves every single day.

Strive for happiness with the following steps listed below:

1. Write down the things that make you happy - make an inventory of all your dreams, ask yourself how you can achieve them, and start working on them now. The tendency to procrastinate is what gets you into trouble. Read my post about procrastination here: Get Rid Of Procrastination Once And For All

2. Have a healthy outlet for your anger - you need to let your frustrations out. Talk to someone if you must or go to the gym to pump out those happy hormones. Studies show that people who exercise are more readily able to find solutions to their problems.

3. Have a support system - with great friends and a caring family, the burden doesn't have to entirely rest on your shoulders.

4. Be thankful for what you have - the saying, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade," is sheer genius. Life may not be all that you wanted it to be, but you also need to know that you are blessed with other things as well. Face the problem head on and see the good that comes out of it.

Being too hard on yourself can sometimes hinder you from being happy.

What stops you from pursuing your path to happiness? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Article Tags: develop management skills, management skill set, manager competencies, manager skill



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The importance of a name - Hi Takuya, Sorry to be late on this. I congratulate you and your family on this juvenile moment of your life. I haven't had this opportunity in my life yet but definitely it would have been a great and rejoicing moment as I have heard it from many. I wish you all the luck and many more great moments with your new born Queen. and 'REINA' is for sure a good name. It's good to see people sharing such a happy moments of their life here too.
Re: The secret to happiness - Hi members, This is a very interesting post and one of the best I have read. Human nature is strange and in many ways a misunderstood thing. A lot of people need help to be happy or content, I suppose that is why we have psychiatrists. I certainly agree with others that happiness is a state of mind, you can’t buy it in the shops but maybe shopping itself makes you happy. Some people are very affluent but are miserable, others may have low paid jobs but a stable and happy home life and would say that they have found happiness so it is definitely a state of mind, if you want to be miserable then you will be. Happiness is different for everybody, you could argue that money buys you happiness and for some yes it does, but for everybody, I don’t think so. There is an old saying which is something like ‘if you love what you do then you will never work a day in your life’ and for many of us here I suppose that would be working from home full time with a successful Internet business. My philosophy is that no matter where you live, what you do or how much you make, if you have your health, family and or friends around to support you in the ups as well as the downs then you are already well off and anything else you achieve is a bonus so you may as well be positive and approach all life’s challenges in that way. regards, Mal.
Re: Playing sports or games with clients - I say, "Give it all you have!" If you win you'll get to see his/her true character in how he/she handles it. You can learn a lot about a person from how they react to situations. If this caused friction in your work environment, then you probably weren't really enjoying working there anyway and life is too short to work at a JOB. I know it's easy for me to say I'd quit if I was uncomfortable with my boss. Sometimes it's much easier said than done in reality. You just have to strive to be happy whatever you do. Read the books, Fish and Fish, too..... or Fish, Two. Can't remember the exact name, but they are great books.
Re: Great video on work-life balance - Hi Evan, Thanks for the video link on Work-life balance, I found Nigel’s presentation very enjoyable and his style kept your interest all the way thru. I must admit I saw a lot of myself in what’s wrong today and the only thing that was a bit unrealistic is when he said he took a year off work to discover more about family life. Other than that it was a great video and very thought provoking. There are some very basic things we can all do to look at life differently and value the right things before we are too old to make it happen. I suppose that is why so many of us want to work from home. regards, Mal.
Re: Why Did You Become An Entrepreneur? - Hi members, This is a great post by Evan and I am late getting on board but I thought I would ad my few cents worth, LOL. I must say that wanting to be an Entrepreneur or work for myself has never ever meant that I wanted to have my own company, that has never been my motivation. My motivation has always been to work from home and be in control of my life, nothing else. Just to be able to organise my life around working from home would be a dream come true for me and is something I am striving for. I have always been a fairly organised sort of person so the old trap of giving myself too much time off would probably work just the opposite for me. I would be so frightened of failure I would probably work too much. There is an old saying which goes something like ’If you love what you do then you never do a days work in your life’. It is something like that anyway and for many of us, working from home would seem like that, it certainly would for me, regards, Mal.


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