How To Create a Life of Happiness

“Do not set aside your happiness. Do not wait to be happy in the future. The best time to be happy is always now.”— Roy T. Bennett

Happiness is one thing we all need in life. Everyone hankers after a happy life. But unfortunately, it seems out of reach most of the time.

The elusiveness of happiness isn’t because you’re not doing the things you believe would make you happy, but mostly because you’re still bereft of some seemingly simple understanding of happiness.

As a result, you still go about trying to be happy. And relying on outward things to make you happy instead of learning about happiness so that you’d understand how to create a lifestyle that’d enable you to live a steady happy life.

Personally, my surface-level understanding of happiness hasn’t done well in helping me to live a steady happy life. And this realization engendered me to start learning about happiness, how it works, and what it is all about.

It’s not that I’m an unhappy person. Or that I’m trying to become happier. I’m a happy guy. I’m upbeat about life and almost always in a good mood. I hang around with people I share good times with. I love my life — and am very passionate about what I’m doing.

Nevertheless, I’ve been wrong about happiness. Some of the places I thought I’d find happiness ended up making me unhappy. And some of the awesome moments I assume that’d induce happiness ended up being a fleeting nice moment. It turned out that I expected moments of ephemeral pleasure to induce happiness in my life.

These experiences which I’ve had several times engendered me to make an effort to have a good understanding of happiness. And part of what I’ve discovered is that though happiness seems simple to understand, it really could be a complicated subject.

The erroneous assumption many individuals have about happiness is the chief reason why happiness has become elusive for many. For example, many individuals believe that their happiness is hinged on someone or something, or that a particular achievement is going to make them happy. Also, some people wrongfully assume that they must be with a particular individual before they could be happy. They continue to seek happiness where they’d never find it.

Achieving something new like purchasing a new car would certainly make you feel good. But assuming things didn’t work out as you anticipated. Let’s say you failed to secure the ideal job, or someone you love suddenly decides it’s all over, does it mean you’re never going to be happy in life?

By all means, you’re still going to be happy because good feelings of new acquisitions, accomplishments, and moments of pleasure are pleasurable feelings that’ll eventually dissipate.

But happiness is a state of mind. It flows to the surface from the inside. Its manifestation isn’t dependent on outward events or experiences.

When you condition yourself to assume that your happiness is hinged on someone. Or on actualizing something you’re striving to accomplish. Then you’d be surprised to find out that you’re not happy even after you’ve actualized all your goals.

The truth about happiness is that you don’t need more to be happy. Rather you can be happy at the time of searching for happiness.

And you could end up unhappy after reaching that point in life where you suppose that you’re going to find happiness . Or where you assume you’re going to become happier.

Also, there’s no need to try to become happier because you’re happy enough. It’s not only that you don’t need it, but you also won’t understand the difference between your present level of happiness and the new level of happiness which you might be yearning for.

You carry your happiness with you, therefore you should consistently create happiness for yourself and strive to sustain it in your life. You’re not going to experience it steadily until you learn how to cause it to come to the surface where you can experience it in the present moment.

Jim Rohn in his book The Keys to Success says: ”You can become a genius at creating happy occasions, or lifestyle in your own home”

Having a good understanding of happiness will enable you to realize that you can be happy by not trying to be happy, but by creating a lifestyle that’s designed to steadily sprinkle happiness in your life. By learning how to be happy in the present moment — and by consistently doing things that align with your values.

A life of happiness is built by consistently doing things you believe would make your life better — and investing your time in activities that’d yield rewarding experiences and make your dreams come true.

Thus your happiness isn’t hinged on getting the things you want, but on finding yourself steadily working towards it. And by teaching yourself to be happy with the little or much you have at the moment while striving to achieve goals that align with your values.

“I guarantee that when you think of ways to make others happy, it’ll make you happy. Money has little to do with it.” – Jim Rohn

Remembering others, thinking of how to help them, and rendering help and support to others also induces happiness. It’s not because of what you’re going to give them, but because you make out time to think about others. Because you use your resources to support others.

Many folks assume that they understand what happiness is all about. They never take their time to learn about happiness so that they’d cease trying to be happy and begin to find happiness in the present moment.

The more you seek happiness, the more it eludes you. Happiness has to come from the inside of you. You’d find it in the life you’re living and not in what you want to achieve. Ergo it’s wrong to have your happiness hinged on anyone or things.

It pays to take time and learn about happiness so you can teach yourself how to create — and live a happy life. And don’t be so focused on pursuing happiness that you fail to realize when you’re happy.

There’ll be negative moments as you perpetually strive to walk in the path you want in life. But those moments of pain and losses are going to be the reason why you become the person you’re aspiring to become. They're the building blocks of a happy life.

This story was previously published on Medium by the same author