"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet."

James Oppenheim

Happiness in Life: You Deserve It!
By Brian Tracy

The degree of happiness you feel is the best measure of how well you are living your life and enjoying your relationships. If you don't feel very happy now, you can learn how to be happier... and more fulfilled in everything you do.

Everyone Is Different

If 100 people went to a smorgasbord and each put food on their plate in the quantity and mix that was most pleasing to them, every plate would be different. Even a husband and wife would come back with plates that looked completely different.

Happiness in life works the same way. Every person requires a particular combination of ingredients to feel the very best about him or herself.

Listen to Your Heart

And your mix is changing continually. If you went to the same smorgasbord every day for a year, you probably would come back with a different plateful of food every time. Each day -- sometimes each hour -- only you can tell what it takes to make you happy. Therefore, the only way to judge whether a job, a relationship, an investment, or any decision, is right for you is to get in touch with your feelings and listen to your heart.

Be True to Yourself

You're true to yourself only when you follow your inner guiding light, when you listen to what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the "still, small voice within." You're being the very best person you can be only when you have the courage and the fortitude to allow your definition of happiness, whatever it may be, to be the guiding light of every part of your life. 

There Are No Limits

A very important point on the subject of happiness is whether or not you feel that you "deserve" it.

Accept the notion that you deserve all the happiness in life you can honestly attain through the application of your talents and abilities. The more you like and respect yourself, the more deserving you will feel of the good things in life. And the more deserving you feel, the more likely you will attain and hold on to the happiness you are working toward.

Make Happiness Your Key Measure

You should make finding happiness the organizing principle of your life. Compare every possible action and decision you make against your standard of happiness to see whether that action would make you happier or unhappier. Soon, you will discover that almost all of your problems come from choices that you have made -- or are currently making -- that do not contribute to your happiness.

Pay the Price

Of course, there are countless times when you will have to do little things that don't make you happy along the way toward those larger things that make you very happy. We call this paying the price of success in advance. You must pay your dues. Sometimes, these interim steps don't make you happy directly, but the happiness you achieve from attaining your goal is so great that it overwhelms the temporary inconveniences and dissatisfactions you had to endure in order to get there.

3 Steps You Can Take Immediately to Put These Ideas Into Action

First, accept that you deserve all the joy and happiness you can possibly achieve through your own efforts.

Second, make your own happiness the chief organizing principle of your life and judge everything against that standard. Follow your inner guiding light.
Third, be willing to work hard and pay the price for the satisfaction and rewards you desire. Always go the extra mile and your success will be assured.

[Ed. Note: Brian Tracy, author of The Psychology of Achievement, was born in Canada in 1944 and grew up in California. After dropping out of high school, he traveled and worked his way around the world, eventually visiting 80 countries on six continents. His extensive studies in business, sales, management, marketing, and economics enabled him to become the head of a $265 million company before he turned his attention to consulting, training, and personal development.

With The Psychology of Achievement, discover how to achieve ALL of your goals, and live the life you've always dreamed of! Brian has compiled techniques in this easy-to-follow program that will teach you how to create your goals, program yourself for success, take action now, and have everything you have ever wanted.]

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Today's Words That Work: Insouciant

Insouciant  (in-SOO-see-unt) -- from the French for "not to worry" -- means free from concern or anxiety.

Example (as used by A.O. Scott in a New York Times review of the film "Inspector Bellamy"): "The ease and professionalism that distinguished this prolific director's [Claude Chabrol's] later work is very much in evidence, as is an insouciant attitude, at once resigned and dismissive, toward mortality."
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This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #3160, 01-05-2011], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.