How I (try) and Stay Happy

It is not always obvious how to be happy but I don’t think worrying about it all the time is not how to get there. Plus, what makes me happy does not make you happy. Where you end up in life is made up of thousands of little actions making it your own path. Be careful trying to follow someone else’s path because you probably will not end up in the exact same place.

Maybe unhappy from expecting an exact outcome and not getting it.

Here are some of the things I do to try and stay happy:

• To borrow from Seth Godin I brainwash myself by consuming as much positive information as I can handle and avoid negative things (I don’t watch the news).
• I try really hard to only read social media about 1 time per week and review my personal email about 2 times per week. I had to do this becasue I am an obsessive person and I started to believe that I was letting someone down when I was not able to see their posts or answer their email immediately.
• I constantly prune my social media feeds. I eliminate anything that is not informative enough, funny enough, or too negative.
• I leave my laptop in my office so I am not tempted to use it when I am not in my office and if I want to use it I have to separate myself from the rest of the house and my family to get work done. This makes it where I give my family more attention than my computer and when I am away working on it I have the urge to go spend time with my family so I am focused so I can finish sooner.
• Every 2-3 months I throw a party with a silly theme with all of my friends. This allows me to get my fix of connecting with people.
• When I am home I leave my phone on vibrate and set it away from me. This allows me to focus on my family and anyone around me.
• I talk to people of all ages and background that seem happy to see what I can take away.
• I am always looking for fun things to do.
• I create. For instance last week I installed a storm door on our house and a couple of weeks before that I created a website (with the help of a developer) and now I am writing.
• I go along for the ride. There are so many situations that I can get frustrated at but I act like I am riding in a car and am just observing. This allows me to avoid getting caught up in the situation and just observing.

Just a note: I like to use writing to help flesh out my thoughts and looking back at what I have written here I stay happy by enjoying the trip and not making the goal my source of happiness.