My biggest lesson in life this year has been to be happy each and every day. I will also never forget that happiness, love and pure joy are born with me and are always a choice I can make at any time.

Make happiness your number one goal.

Can you think of anyone that does not want to make happiness their primary goal? I can’t. Unfortunately many of us get lost in a sea of work, family issues, worries and stress, so we forget that a core of happiness sits inside of us waiting to be let out. This happiness isn’t a destination but a continuous journey. It is a journey of discovering that the real you can embrace self acceptance leading to pure joy and love. Being happy with yourself is the first step to being happy with the world.

Let go of your judgements.

Once you choose to be happy and stop self judging, you will see a kinder more joyful self emerge. Your family and friends respond in kind to you. Nature and even the sky will look brighter. You will discover a wholeness about you that you may have lost a long time ago. There will be a purity that seeps back into your soul and you will recognize that you have always been good enough. Reclaim your inner light.

Having more stuff will not make you happier.

Wanting more stuff, only makes you want more most of the time. Having more stuff is about consuming more and staying on that consumer treadmill. Being happy is simply a choice that can be made right now and always. Having nice things can bolster your happiness but doesn’t make you happy. Stuff isn’t your happiness. You are already happy and probably don’t even realize it. Make that choice now and you will see that having more stuff isn’t nearly as important as you thought it was.

Wake up to happiness every morning.

How you begin the day sets the tone for a day filled with happiness and joy, or worry and self judgments. It is your decision to begin the day with good thoughts. But our social programming and subconscious conditioning is a powerful enemy and one that can automatically bring a morning of stress filled thoughts, fears and doubts. Your intention should always lean towards beginning your morning with peace and joy. Whether you use meditation, take a small walk or just look up at the sky, any of these small goals can start the day off right. It is always your decision. Choose to be happy.

Continuous stress brought on by work or personal issues can turn you into a judgemental, irritable and frustrated monster. These days we are attacked by the media, overwork, information overload and promises that material objects will bring us happiness. At times we wonder if we will ever surface from the storm of bad news pounding us every day. Here are some solutions to get you back on the right track to happiness.

Decide first thing in the morning that this will be a fantastic day.

Whether you make a deliberate decision to be happy as your eyes flutter open or use a meditation CD, your first morning thoughts will set the stage for the day. You must be the master of your life and take control of your day, for each day is special and will never be seen again. It is your thoughts, attitude and especially your ability to ignore early judgments and self criticism, that will kick off a wonderful day. It really is your choice. Either you can run around preparing your body or take some precious time and prepare your mind. This must become a daily habit.

Always remember that you have a core of happiness inside you at all times.

Remember when you were a kid and you lived in the moment and found joy in the smallest of things? Well that part of you never left. It’s just that over the years it got buried deep inside of you somehow. Societies programming, years of conditioning and your ego has taken over your happiness core. Laughing and smiling at the trivial occurrences in life that previously troubled you, and the world will suddenly look much brighter. Worries are for the most part a waste of time. Again, it really is a choice. You can choose to be happy. Try it.

Love comes before happiness.

Learning to love and accept your self is the key to learning to love others and life itself. It all begins with you. This is a fundamental building block to profound happiness. Deep inside you, you are a whole and beautiful person. From the day that you were born to the day you die this truth never leaves you. Let it shine.

Excessive stress is brought on by occurrences outside of yourself. How your mind filters these occurrences is under your control. You are the master of your life. You are the master of your mind. You can be happy. There is a core waiting to be let out each and every moment. It is your choice now. Let it out.

1. It is essential for you to make a conscious decision to be happy. Make that decision today! To be truly happy, accept and love yourself for whom you truly are. If you do not love and accept yourself, you will project your own insecurities and judgmental behaviour on others. When you choose to love and accept yourself, you will immediately begin to love and accept others.
2. Wake up each day and decide right then to be happy. If you run around stressed after crawling out of bed and avoid your inner thoughts, you will allow negativity and worries to seep in and rule your day. Take time to relax each morning and decide that today will be a day stuffed with happy thoughts! This is a golden rule to living each and every day with happiness in your heart. I do it every day.
3. Realize that your worries, anxieties and negative judgments are not your core self. They come from societies programming, past conditioning and your ego’s continuous fear and insecurities. Within your core self is a deep pool of happiness. You may use this pool of happiness at anytime to live a truly wonderful life.
4. Make happiness your number one goal in life. It isn’t money, a beautiful body, retirement, or any so called success factor that should be your ultimate goal in life. Happiness should be your goal and it is available to you right now! You can step out the door in the next few minutes and open yourself to your inner happiness. It is right there! If being happy is not your ultimate goal then you will never be genuinely happy. It took me hundreds of books, blogs, talks and years to finally come to this simple conclusion. My goal is to be happy.
5. Understand that once you have the basic needs of shelter, food, and love, you already have the authentic fundamentals for living a happy life. If you think you need all the possessions that society makes you believe you need, than happiness will forever be out of your reach. You will always want something, newer, faster or shinier, and you will never be genuinely happy with what you have. You can choose to be happy right now with the basic needs of life. Happiness is inside and can be released anytime you desire. Sounds simple, but happiness really is a choice. Make that choice right now!

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After having read a couple of hundred self help books over the last 15 years I’ve come to the conclusion that being happy is a choice. Either we chose to be happy or we don’t. It’s that simple! We are all seeking happiness and we all have the ability to be happy in our central core. Our pure unconditioned inside self is happiness. And that happiness can be let out right now!

Why aren’t we happy? We aren’t happy because we are conditioned over the years to pay attention to many useless thoughts and worries from the outside world, that creates our inner troubled world. All our worries, anger, frustrations come from the world outside of our mind and heart. We are too fat. We don’t have enough money. We hate our jobs. We are conditioned to worry about these things and also inflict terrible self judgement upon ourselves because we aren’t measuring up to someone else’s standards. And with all this negative bombardment of thoughts we might have times of joy but never true contentment. What is stopping you from taking a nice walk outside right now? Only your thoughts.

You do have a core of happiness inside of you waiting to burst out. The only thing you have to do is let it out. Let go of judging yourself, let go of guilt and tell yourself you deserve to be happy right now. Don’t you deserve to be happy right now? Don’t you deserve to be happy for the rest of your life?

Just let yourself be happy right now. Just try it for a minute. Tomorrow morning get up and chose to be happy. Creating that choice in the morning will start you off to a happy day. Each happy day leads to a happy life.

You can read a million books, try to lose weight, count your pennies, change jobs and continue to find the ultimate solution to happiness. Or you can recognize that you have the potential to be happy right now. It has been in your heart all this time! You are the key to your own happiness! You can be happy right now.

Please consider this article for your website, blog or ezine. Permission to reprint if by-line stays intact and links are activated on the Internet.

In a recent CNN article the average large company CEO earned $42,000 in one day. The average worker earned $41,861 in one year. Therefore the average worker made less in one year, than what the average CEO made in one day. A CEO makes 262 times more than the average worker. Sorry, this is something that is very difficult for any individual to control.

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