Come On, Get Happy

Helpful Happiness Tips

“Active gratitude—counting your blessings and actually taking time during the day to do so—is probably the single most important habit,” says David Leonhardt, known as “The Happy Guy” and author of Climb Your Stairway to Heaven: The 9 Habits of Maximum Happiness. “From the paperclip to our cars to our health to our freedoms—if we don’t actively appreciate it, then we’re not going to get all the happiness out of any other habit or any other change we make.”

Being grateful helped Katsuaki Tsukamoto be happier. The 35-year-old carpenter had always felt a bit of emptiness in his life. “I thought I needed to have something or own something to make me happy,” he says.

He had an epiphany while on a bike ride one beautiful day. “I suddenly realized that my bicycle was a gift, but more than that, I started feeling that everything was a gift in some sense,” he says. “I really felt appreciation for the miracle of the moment and was grateful that I could experience it.”

For many, this epiphany doesn’t come naturally in the first 30 days. A gratitude journal documenting everything you’re grateful for can often help remind you of all the good things in your life. Every day, simply write three to five things that you appreciated about that day.

Happier Living

Your success in the first 30 days and beyond will be dependent on how well you make time for the things that make you happy. Whether it’s completing a Sudoku puzzle, catching up with a friend or painting, you should always strive for a balance between the things you have to do and the things you want to do.

Your success won’t be measured in this month, but over your lifetime. For Scott, his charity work is so connected to his overall happiness that he no longer views them as mutually exclusive.

“I don’t really think about the word ‘happiness,’ but I guess I am,” he says. “It’s just what I do now. I love it and can’t imagine ever doing anything else.”

* name(s) changed.