Happiness Strategies | How to be Happy

Guess what!

I’ve recently released a nifty
little Strategies for Happiness
workbook on creating more
happiness in your life.

It uses checklist-style worksheets to guide you to think about, and organize, the areas of your life you want to change, including:

• - Creating a happiness mindset
• - Optimism and beliefs
• - Goals and happiness
• - Research-based strategies for happiness
• - Releasing barriers to happiness

In fact, it’s much of the stuff you read about here, put into a ready-made action plan.

It’s an instant PDF download, so if you’re keen to get started right away, you can!
Download now!

Are you planning to be happier
in 2009?

If it’s your goal to boost your
happiness over the next year,
you’ll find some some ideas 
for what to focus on  in the post 

How to be Organized in 2009:
Day 8 – Strategies for Happiness 

at my Get Organized Wizard blog.

Ideas for goals include:

• Creating a happiness mindset
• Strategies for happiness
• Releasing barriers to happiness

You might find other, happiness-related areas to inspire you this year in the organizing your new year’s resolutions series, including Personal Development, Health & Fitness, Fun & Recreation. Managing Technology, Home, Family and Relationships.

Ready to make 2009 the year you organize your happiness?

Picture adapted from image by Aldon.

About this talk

From the TED site:

Dan Gilbert presents research and data from his exploration of happiness — sharing some surprising tests and experiments that you can also try on yourself. Watch through to the end for a sparkling Q&A with some familiar TED faces.

The take-away

Gilbert gives heaps of interesting examples to show how bad we are at comparing costs and estimating value, and the problem of shifting comparisons. As a result, we make poor decisions about what will make us happy.

In essence:

• we underestimate the odds of our future pains, and
• we overestimate the value of our present pleasures.

My 2 cents

To put it another way: immediate gratification ain’t so gratifying – our brains simply trick us into thinking it will be.

Knowing that, we may find greater happiness if we adopt those old-fashioned virtues of patience, persistence and discipline.

But not when it comes to chocolate.

About this talk

From the TED site:

Can happiness be bought? To find out, author Benjamin Wallace sampled the world’s most expensive products, including a bottle of 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc, 8 ounces of Kobe beef and the fabled (notorious) Kopi Luwak coffee. His critique may surprise you.

The upshot

Wallace’s ‘grueling quest’ is amusing, but if you just want the upshot, it’s this:

He ends by describing a study from researches at Stanford and CalTech. They gave participants the same wine labeled with different price tags.

Unsurprisingly, many participants said they preferred the more expensive wine.

But surprisingly, MRI brain imaging performed on the participants showed that their brains registered more pleasure for the wine with the (fake) higher price tag.

My take: The happiness, it seems, is real. We only think we need money to buy it.

What do you have lined up to help make 2009 a happy year?

Have you planned any new year’s resolutions?

I thought you might be interested in a series I’m doing at Get Organized Wizard on The 12 Days of New Year’s Resolutions for Better Personal Organization.

I’m spending 12 days posting ideas for new year’s resolutions you might like to choose for yourself. Each day focuses on a different life area:

Day 1: Personal Development

Day 2: Health & Fitness

Day 3: Career & Work

Day 4: Fun & Recreation

Day 5: Managing Technology

Day 6: Home

Day 7: Personal Presentation

Day 8: Strategies for Happiness

Day 9: Money & Finance

Day 10: Relationships

Day 11: Time Management

Day 12: Partridge in a pear tree Family

We’ve only just started, so now’s the perfect time to come check it out.

Importantly, the focus is on progress, not perfection. As humans we’ll never achieve the latter, but we have a good chance at the former.

Don’t wait to begin your new plans – 2009 is moving quickly. Come on over and join me!

Picture adapted from image by Aldon.