Happiness

Synthetic Happiness: You Can Be Happy No Matter What

You don't need to get what you want to be happy. You can be just as happy if you don't get what you want, as you can if you get what you want. It's not just sour grapes. You can manufacture your own happiness. It's synthetic happiness. Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, teaches us that synthetic happiness is just as real and enduring as real happiness. Dan also teaches us that our longings and worries are overblown because we have the capacity to create happiness within ourselves rather than depend on experiences.

The Keys for Skilled Happiness

Happiness is a skill you can develop. Some people are born happy, while others have to work at it. Some have to work harder than others. Rather than work harder, work smarter. Luckily, with all the focus on happiness, we now have a better body of knowledge to draw from. Carlin Flora shares a collection of patterns and practices for skilled happiness from a variety of sources in her article, The Pursuit of Happiness, in Psychology Today.

13 Motivation Techniques

I'm refocusing on some patterns and practices for feeling good. I think motivation is one of the most crucial skills you need throughout your life. This is a set of expert motivation techniques from the book Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, by Dr. David Burns.

12 Little Laws of Life

A friend of mine sent me an email titled “Twelve Little Laws of Life.” The laws were short and sweet and I was impressed. I hunted down the original author Tom Hoobyar. Tom said I was free to republish the laws. Here are the 12 laws of life, followed by my take on them. The …

Great Lessons Learned from Santa Claus

“Dear Santa, I have been nice all year. Most of the time. Once in a while. Never mind, I’ll just buy my own stuff.” — Anonymous Well, it’s the holiday season, so I thought I’d share some lessons from old St. Nick. Santa has always been one of my heroes. Granted I never thought much …