Happiness Blog

Pride is one of the most important and most misunderstood aspects of happiness.

Pride in a job well done, in doing the right thing, your accomplishments, your integrity or in the family you have raised, these are all very positive.

Pride can also be a very bad, dangerous defect. What’s the difference? Here are some examples…

False Pride places too much emphasis on what other people may think or how they may react. It places our projections of their concerns ahead of our own needs. Our lives can become directed by fears and concerns about what other people think. False pride can prevent us from seeking and accepting the help we need to survive and thrive. False pride can cause us to try too hard to impress other people.

Superior Pride raises people up and places them above others, separating and isolating them with an inflated sense of self importance. We all know people with stuck up superior pride, they are attractive only to themselves. Their attitude says, “I am better than you and the rest of the world.”

Perfectionistic Pride demands that things be perfect in order to be acceptable and that we accept only the best. Anything less is inferior and unworthy. Perfectionistic pride wastes time, resources and destroys happiness. It is exclusive and exclusionary. Perfectionistic pride limits our willingness to explore, try new things, to enjoy differences.

Each of these negative forms of pride defeat our desires to be happy and spiritually successful. Recognize and reject them when they occur, replace them with happy, successful responses.

How do we decide if pride is positive or perverse? Ask is it helpful or hurtful? Does our pride expand and enhance our lives and opportunities or does it limit them? Is it a genuine expression of love, delight and affection? Or is it a twisted false elevation and enhancement of self?

Trumpeting Triumphs is Not Bragging! Celebrating successes, trumpeting triumphs and delighting in good deeds all motivate people to do more and are important to happiness, enthusiasm and success. Bragging is very different. Bragging says, “I am better than you are…!”

Trumpeting Triumphs, Celebrating Successes, Delighting in Good Deeds Are Keys to Happiness and Spiritual Success!!!!

For more Happiness Habits  see HappinessHabit.com

Copyright © 2008, Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. This material may NOT be published, broadcast, distributed or rewritten without permission from the authors.

Extend A Warm Welcome To Everyone You Meet

Habitually Happy people choose to cultivate a warm, enthusiastic, energetic spirit. It’s their Best Way of Being, the Optimal Best Self target they continually try to attain and maintain. Why not try to feel your best, do your best, and be at your best all of the time?

If you summon up a sense of fun and sparkle, and honestly project it, you can’t help but take on a positive mood yourself. Try to touch each person you meet with a genuinely warm, caring spirit. Make genuine goodness your guiding goal.

Habitually happy people extend a warm welcome to everyone they meet. They continually try to touch each person they meet with a genuinely warm, kind, caring spirit. If they can help you, especially when it’s at no cost or risk to them, they will always do it because that’s the way they want to live. They don’t withold help to gain control or advantage.

They don’t try to change a person’s mood or become let’s be happy cheer leaders. They simply greet everyone warmly, they try to touch each person they meet with a genuinely positive spirit. If it comes back to them, so much the better. If it doesn’t, they don’t worry. By extending warmth and goodness to others they feel it within themselves.

Happiness Habit: Skills & Strategies of Habitually Happy People
Copyright 2005, Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. Reprints