3 Traits You Need To Be Truly Happy

Even when the world comes crashing down.

The world has never been more miserable. The once-laughable Hollywood apocalypse seems within arm’s reach.

And happiness seems further than it ever was.

Yet, today, happiness is no longer just an emotion. It is a skill that you can use to avoid life’s disappointments and misery.

When misery becomes the new joy, we must fight back and reclaim our happiness.

Because we all show up to our day jobs miserable. We collect our paychecks in misery as the government and our insurances steal our hard work.

Think about it, how many of you sit behind a desk in a cubicle from 9 to 5 for five days a week. And let’s not be stupid, sometimes the work runs over and you leave your cubicle at 8 pm.

You go home and you heat a soggy unseasoned ready meal that tastes like acrid and plastic.

Our lives have become a broken record of misery. When we do get married and think we will finally get our Cinderella ending, we end up in more misery.

We go to work miserable and come home miserable. We wake up miserable and go to bed miserable.

So, it’s no wonder that it begs to be asked, are there genuinely happy people? Of course, there are.

And here’s a secret that you’re not meant to know. You can be genuinely happy too.

You find opportunities to be happy.

Genuinely happy people make happiness their lifestyle. That means they wake up with a smile.

They find little moments of happiness — whether it’s a good coffee or sunny weather — and they embrace them.

You must look for these tiny moments and capitalise on them. I will bet that there are many instances in your day that have these tiny moments.

When you wake up and find there is no queue for the bathroom, smile. When you look in the mirror and find that your eye bags aren’t that bad today, smile. When you get your coffee and you don’t spill it all over your clothes, smile.

Part and parcel of finding opportunities to be happy are to show gratitude.

The more you show gratitude and notice the little things to be grateful for, the more the universe will reward you with good things.

You don’t have to have a gratitude journal if that’s too much hassle. Every time you close the front door behind you to go to work, say your gratitude for the day out loud.

Are you grateful that you woke up on time, despite not setting the alarm? Say it out loud.

The act of saying it out loud makes it more real. You feel grateful and smile. You’re happy.

The next time you leave your house, you remember the happy feeling and think back to what you did to make yourself happy.

Aha! You were grateful. So now you do it again. You voice your gratitude out loud: “I’m grateful that the kids behaved themselves this morning”.

Another opportunity for happiness is to be kind.

When we rush and push and scowl to work, it’s nice to step back and show kindness. None of us is that grumpy on a Saturday afternoon.

Say thank you to the bus driver. Give up your seat to an elderly citizen. Give some money to the homeless man next to the train station. Watch his face light up with gratitude.

Bring flowers home for no reason. Watch your partner’s eyes soften a little more.

The more you emit good vibes and positivity, the more you’ll receive that positivity.

Soon, you’ll feel lighter, smile more naturally and feel genuinely happy.

You work on your passion projects.

We all have hobbies or creative outlets. Whether it’s graphic design, writing or composing music.

When we work on these passion projects, we feel happy. We’re doing something we enjoy.

Our miserable lives rob us from enjoying our passion projects. When the world feels like it’s out to get you, you hardly find time to work on your happy projects.

But if you make it part of your routine, then you can steal time back. Right after dinner, instead of watching 90 Day Fiancé, work on your creative hobby for an hour.

At first, it might be hard to get started. It would feel weird and you’ll start to question why you’re even trying.

Ignore that voice. Whatever you do, do not succumb to it. Rather use that doubt to create, anyway.

Draw a caricature of a small voice dictating a grown person. Write a story about the man who listened to his head. Knit a jumper of the caricature.

Work, despite the doubt. Even if you spend the first 30 minutes scrolling through Pinterest for inspiration, continue.

Show up every hour after dinner for the next 5 years and you would have a portfolio, a business, a happy life.

People often underestimate what their passion projects can do to their happiness. They think that happy people are just born happy.

Everyone came out of their mother’s womb looking like a potato. What you do with your potato life is up to you. If you want to make your potato life a happy one, you hold the remote control. You have the power.

In fact, should you stick to creating for five years, you can kiss your miserable day job goodbye and become an entrepreneur.

All it takes is a million dreams that you’re willing to make a million steps toward. And before you know it, you’ll be happy.

You work on bettering yourself.

How do you feel after you’ve gone through the whole weekend without a shower? Pretty disgusting, right?

Especially if you’ve been stuffing your face with digestive biscuits watching Border Security.

Sometimes a little self-care and a little self-love can go a long way. You don’t have to book yourself a spa day to do that. All you need is a few cheap bath bombs, a nice warm towel and some cucumbers.

Oh, and some good relaxing music.

Make your spa day at home. Give yourself a pamper date. It’s good to feel loved by yourself.

But bettering yourself means more than a few spa dates.

Maybe you want to work on your weight loss. Make your New Year’s resolution a possible reality by going to the gym right after work.

Carry your gym bag. Even if for the first couple of days you go straight home because you’re “tired”, keep carrying your gym bag to work.

Soon, you’ll get sick of carrying a dead weight around and make it useful by going to the gym.

Don’t stop there, though.

Whether you like audiobooks or a good ol’-fashioned physical book, carry a book with you everywhere you go. That way, it will be easier to read and learn rather than scroll mindlessly on your phone.

Knowledge is never in short of supply and the demand keeps growing. The art of learning and bettering yourself lies in a book.

You could have gotten everything I’ve already said from a book. Reading opens up our imagination, teaches us and makes us happy.

When we see ourselves improving, it makes us happy.

You could learn new skills, either via reading or online courses. These new skills could be for our day jobs, our passion projects or just out of curiosity.

We live in a tech-savvy world. It’s survival of the fittest. Learn how to use tech or you’re toast.

Bettering yourself means equipping yourself in a fast-moving world, to maintain your levels of happiness.

The key to happiness is to train it. Whether through looking for opportunities for happiness, working on your passion projects or bettering yourself, make happiness your goal.

Soon, you’ll attract it.

Fatima Sultan is a writer, tutor and self-proclaimed nerd. She writes about life and its many excitements and disappointments. She also apparently likes referring to herself in the third person. You can read more of her writing by subscribing to her free newsletter.