SUGGESTION 12: SEND HAPPINESS JOURNAL ENTRY

Sharing a positive event or affirmation about yourself can reinforce these positive notions in your mind. The Happy Habits app allows you to email your daily entry. You can do this in other ways, too, such as creating positive events posts on Facebook or other social media.

Also, sometimes it may be difficult to create an affirmation or focus on the positives if you are not used to it. So sharing your events can allow you to get the perspective of another person.

SUGGESTION 13: COMPARE YOURSELF POSITIVELY

People are always engaging in social comparison. However, happier people use social comparison to motivate them or to help them recognize what is positive about themselves or their life.

Social comparison is noticing how other people and their lives compare to you and your life. When you tend to notice how others are better than you or have more than you, you are more likely to feel worse about yourself. In addition, you are likely to feel jealous of others' success rather than feel genuinely happy for them.

This approach is likely to lead to low self-esteem and unhappiness. However, if you recognize that your abilities and your life circumstances are not set in stone, that much is changeable, you can begin to use social comparison as a motivator rather than being discouraged by your comparison to others.

In other words, happier people see other people's success as encouraging. They recognize that they can learn from successful people and make changes in their lives to increase opportunities for success. They see others as role models rather than as competitors.

Because they view others' success in this way, they can also feel genuine joy at their accomplishments. As with many emotions, this joy is often reflected back to them from others. Thus, this attitude is likely to contribute to the conditions for happiness.

SUGGESTION 14: PURSUE SUCCESS INSTEAD OF AVOID FAILURE

Focusing on achieving success or striving for excellence rather than on the fear of failure helps you to create the conditions for success and happiness. Many people are driven to achieve because they don't want to be seen as a failure. Their accomplishments are due to fear of failure or to obtain social approval. Such a negative approach tends to be stressful which can contribute to feeling overwhelmed and discouraged.

However, people who focus on pursuing success in a positive way rather than avoiding failure tend to be happier people. They tend to see the process of pursuing goals as enjoyable and have a high commitment to achieving the goals. The outcome of whether they are successful or not is not as important as the process of engaging in the pursuit of goals.

In addition, this attitude contributes to the likelihood of making greater progress towards goals which reinforces the process.

SUGGESTION 15: DON'T DWELL, DO!

Instead of dwelling on past mistakes or worries about future outcomes, focus on doing. Dwelling on things tends to lead to paralysis rather than accomplishment. Happier people tend to let go of past mistakes and failures more quickly.

In addition, they aren't as likely to dwell on negative emotions. They tend to use emotions for problem-solving, and if the emotion is no longer useful, they move on. You can do the same thing by using emotions to help you take action. When you are dissatisfied with something, do something about it. When you are hurt or angry, communicate about it and try to solve the problem.

Happier people take action. If you want to create the conditions for happiness in your life, you need to take the necessary steps. Happiness doesn't fall out of the sky. You create it! READ MORE: page 6