Happiness Insights

Happiness Insights Index

For geater Happiness right now explore the Happiness Blog, Happiness Habit, Happiness Habit Notes and Happiness In Hard Times  web sites.  See Happiness Habits At Work and Happiness Habits for Families to expand happiness on the job or at home. Follow us Twitter/HappinessHabit.

Happiness, Criticism and Insecurity

Criticism Often Flows From Insecurity

People who lack confidence, ability, acceptance or social grace may feel a need to do something to compensate for their feelings of insecurity and inadequacy.  

They may criticize, put something or someone down to raise them self up. This gives them a false sense of self importance, self righteousness and superiority.

It's the Fault Finding Feel Goods, making themselves feel good by putting something down, criticizing and complaining. 

The problem is, they are focusing on negatives, that's not the way to happiness or spiritual success.  It's also not the best way to get what you want. 

Describing what's wrong does not say what is right, focusing on what's bad does not express what is good, telling people what you don't like does not communicate what you do want.

Happy people avoid the Fault Finding Feel Goods and Avoid All Unnecessary, Non-Productive Negativity.

Unhappy people and critics can always tell you what's wrong, happy people often don't have a clue what they are upset about.

Critics Often Embrace A Critical World View - Everything is bad or unacceptable. They are critical of other people, inferior things, differences, unusual opportunities, you name it.  When you see so many bads and wrongs in life, it's hard to be happy or confident. 

Criticism Causes Insecurity And Flows From Insecurity. Critics often tend to be hypersensitive and especially prone to slights which is a symptom of their insecurity. 

The Solution: 

1) Recognize where the criticism comes from and how damaging it is to happiness, spiritual success and well-being.
2) Consciously decide to embrace and practice a more loving, accepting, positive approach. 
3) Build confidence by seeing opportunities and possibilities where critical insecurity limited your enjoyment and separated you from wonderful experiences, other people and spiritual success.

Remember those dreadful events you have to attend where everyone is always so boring?  Everyone there has something interesting, exciting and valuable to share with you, your challenge is to find it. 

Turn each interaction into a fascinating hunt where you are eager to discover each person's interesting, memorable, exciting qualities. Learn to enjoy meeting and greeting. Play host rather than insecure guest. 

Study how great leaders and political figures work a room.  It's a learned skill you can acquire if you are genuinely interested in other people. It's only possible when you appreciate and affirm and do not continually find fault.

This is far more interesting, exciting, rewarding and satisfying than critical isolation.

Enjoy Yourself And Other People.

Copyright 1999- , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Explore HappinessHabit.com and HappinessBlog.com. Our materials may NOT be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors. Photograph from Dreamstime.com

Enjoying Work

The secret to enjoying work is to see each task or action a satisfying achievement that moves you closer to success or a worthwhile goal.

Connect What You Have To Do
To What Is Important To You

Even the most boring jobs can support families well, allow you to achieve other life dreams or provide income to pursue activities that are truly important to you -  higher education, a hobby, sport, your music, writing, charitable goals or valued volunteer work.

Decide What You Are Going To Do And Find Ways To Enjoy It

Energy and enthusiasm to complete tasks well are just as important as developing good plans.

Excite Your Attitude To Energize Your Actions

Creatively reinvent jobs into interesting games, keep score, involve other people, tie everything you do to meaningful goals. Take pride in doing simple things extraordinarily well. 

Expect To Enjoy Your Work And
Find Ways To Make Work Enjoyable And Rewarding

Dreading or disliking what you have to do allows negative attitudes to undermine your effectiveness and your enjoyment.  If this doesn't work and you really dislike what you do, make changes.

Make Lists, Check Off And Celebrate Completed Tasks

Consciously celebrate successful completion of each task, step or section.  Continually celebrating success fuels your drive to achieve more.

See Happiness Habits At Work and the Happiness Blog for more on Happiness and "Work"

Copyright 1999-    , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Explore HappinessHabit.com and HappinessBlog.com. Our materials may Not be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors.

Happiness In Tough Times

What are the keys to happiness and spiritual success in tough times when your economic well-being is threatened and severely stressed?

Here are highlights from the Happiness In Hard Times concept summary card that may help.  Explore Happiness In Hard Times for complete descriptions.

Action, Activity & Achievement Are Healing - Working hard on worthwhile goals is energizing, encouraging and empowering. Isolation and Inactivity are big dangers. Don't isolate yourself from people, positive experiences and opportunities that can help you.

Avoid The Fault Finding Feel Goods and
Avoid All UnNecessary, Non-Productive Negativity - these key Happiness Habits are especially important during tough times.  Amazing improvements in happiness come from simply avoiding unnecessary negativity.

Revol & Rebel - against situations and forces that distress or depress your spirits. Don't give them control of your thoughts, actions, feelings, time and attention. Don't help them hurt you. Simply say, "I am not giving you control of my feelings. I am not giving you the power to hurt me."

Don't Beat Yourself Up!  We are at our best and able to perform our best when we are Up, confident, energized, focused and happy.  Don't tear yourself down or hurt your ability to perform well.

Our Focus Determines Our Feelings - focusing on bad things makes us feel sad, anxious or angry. Shifting our attention to good things is energizing, elevating, encouraging. We never feel better by focusing on how badly we feel or on how poorly we think we are doing. Focus on what you want to achieve.

Move From Problems To Solutions Quickly - moving from problems to positive solutions makes us feel better. So does working hard to implement them.

Misery Is Meant To Make Us Move - Misery signals something has changed and something needs to change. We need to change to end our misery. We may need to change what we are doing, change how we are thinking, change how we are feeling, or change all three.

For more specific steps you can take to be happy in tough times explore the Happiness In Hard Times  and Happiness Blog web sites.

Copyright 1999-    , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Explore HappinessHabit.com and HappinessBlog.com. Our materials may Not be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors.

Why Happiness Varies By Culture & Country

Happiness Indexes and happiness ratings get a great deal of media attention.  Happiness does vary by culture and some countries and cultures are happier than others.

The key questions to ask are: "What causes these differences in happiness?"

And most importantly, "What can we do to be happier?"

Our research shows the happiest people in the world are the most loving people, they are very kind, caring, compassionate and they have high ethics and integrity.

They love what they do, they love the people around them, they love their work and they love themselves. Love truly does propel happiness. Optimism, love and joy characterize happy people, cultures and countries.

In the Western world, many people chase after "Success" thinking "Success" will bring them happiness but they are often very disappointed. Happiness and “Success” are two very different things.

There are lots of very "Successful" people who are not especially happy. Michael Jackson comes to mind.

America's focus on “Success” at the expense of love, caring, community and compassion lowers our comparative Happiness index. In bad economic times, when material “Success” is elusive for so many, we feel even worse.

The secret to happiness is so simple it almost seems trite, but it works.

Fuel your life and your work with love. Love what you do, love the people around you, love your work, your tasks and love yourself.  Revolt and rebel against letting hardships down your spirits. Resolve to triumph and be happy despite your difficulties.

Explore HappinessBlog.com and HappinessInHardTimes.com for more simple, specific steps you can take to be happier during difficult times.

Copyright 1999-    , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Explore HappinessHabit.com and HappinessBlog.com. Our materials may Not be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors.

Avoid Blinding Optimism

Positive Thinking Is Dangerous
When It Prompts People To
Overlook Warning Signs
And Danger Signals

Prevailing psychobabble prescribes positive thinking as the universal path to happiness and material success.

Life, happiness and success are very different and a great deal more complex.

Ignoring Warning Signs And Danger Signals Can Be Disastrous!

Think of all the famous disasters caused by excessive optimism.

Habitually Happy People assess reality very accurately and carefully.  Once they are sure they have made good decisions, they use a full force of positive energy and expectations to propel their plans forward.

Belief in positive outcomes propels success only when it is supported by good decisions and wise actions.

Otherwise, positive thinking can prompt delusion and denial.

Assess reality carefully and accurately.  Make good decisions.  Put the full force of positive energy and expectations behind your plans.  Work hard to achieve your goals and be prepared to change your plans.

Believe in the success of everything you do.
Work hard to do the right thing in the best way possible.

Copyright 1999-     , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Explore HappinessHabit.com and HappinessBlog.com. Our materials may NOT be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors. Photograph from Dreamstime.com

Happy People Are Alike

"All happy families are alike but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."  ~ Leo Tolstoy  (1829-1910)

The personal qualities and characteristics of happy people are remarkably consistent. They are generally kind, caring, loving, honest, enthusiastic, curious, energetic and adventuresome.

Unhappy people, in contrast, exhibit a wide variety of psychological distress, disease and dysfunction.

Happiness Habit interviewed and studied habitually happy people from many different walks of life and personal situations. 

We found characteristically happy people had a very distinctive way of looking at the world that fuels their ever present joy and helps protect them from stress and distress. We call these special qualities Happiness Habits.

If you choose to adopt and embrace Happiness Habits for yourself, you too can be happy or happier despite what is happening to you or around you. 

From How To Live A Happy Life - 101 Ways To Be Happier
by Michele Moore  p.26-27

Copyright 1999-     , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Explore HappinessHabit.com and HappinessBlog.com. Our materials may NOT be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors. Photograph from Dreamstime.com

Define Yourself As A Happy Person

Define Yourself, Decide What Sort Of Person You Want To Be And Become And Work To Become That Person.  Clear goals define steps to attain them.

Want to be happy and spiritually successful? 

Decide to be a happy, spiritually successful person.  See yourself as that person, embrace that ideal as real and authentic for you.  Acquire Happiness Habits.

Imagine what that happy and spiritually successful person is really like. Practice being that happy, spiritually successful person all of the time. In time that goal will become a real and authentic role for you.

If we don't decide what sort of person we want to be and become and then work to become that person, our environment and experience determine our identity and destiny for us.  They may not always serve us well.

Define Yourself As Happy And Spiritually Successful And Work To Become A Happy, Spiritually Successful Person.  Visualize how that person acts and reacts, take those qualities on for yourself. Acquire Happiness Habits.

Practice being that person until it becomes a real and natural habit for you.

You will become happy and spiritually successful over time.

From:  How To Live A Happy Life - 101 Ways To Be Happier
by Michele Moore  p.54-55

Copyright 1999-     , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Explore HappinessHabit.com and HappinessBlog.com. Our materials may NOT be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors. Photograph from Dreamstime.com

Live According To Your Aspirations, Not Your Inclinations

Living According To Our Aspirations means embracing, emphasizing and energizing our ideals, values and vision of who we want to be and become. 

Living by our Inclinations lets past programming, previous propensities and predilections shape and guide our behavior. They may not always serve us well.

If we don't decide what sort of person we want to be and become and then consciously work to become that person, our environment and our experience determine our identity and destiny for us.

It's a contrast between a life that is a conscious creation versus a mindless reaction and go with the flow existence.

To Be Happy And Spiritually Successful, Live According To Your Aspirations, NOT Your Inclinations. 

Practice Being The Person You Want To Be.

From How To Live A Happy Life - 101 Ways To Be Happier
By Michele Moore  p. 116-117

Copyright 1999-    , Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Explore HappinessHabit.com and HappinessBlog.com. Our materials may NOT be published, broadcast, redistributed or rewritten without written permission from the authors. Photograph from Dreamstime.com

Happy Happiness Insights Inauguration!

Happiness Habit launched HappinessInsights.com to share key quotes and concepts from Happiness Habit® programs. The Insight Index will grow as we add new items.  Comment and share them!