Habitually Happy people are amazingly altruistic. They rarely pass up a chance to be kind when it costs them little or risks them little.
Practicing Continual Kindness Is A Way To Be Happy.
They are also very adept at protecting themselves, pursuing and achieving their goals. They are not “people pleasers,” they do good because it makes them feel good.
It’s an example of the First Law of Happy Thought:
Our Focus Determines Our Feelings.
When We Focus Our Time, Attention and Energy On Doing Good We Feel Good. More importantly…
We can’t expect others to treat us well if we don’t extend the same care, concern and compassion we want from them to them.
I recently heard a noted economist speak on the subject of giving at a church stewardship dinner. He relayed recent studies linking charitable giving to happiness, but missed a few key points:
Altruism Is Attractive – We tend to like and trust altruistic people because we believe they place goodness, right action and the welfare of others on an equal plane with their own concerns.
It’s hard to like or trust selfish people who don’t show integrity.
Make Goodness A Guiding Goal – Doing good makes us feel good. Giving appropriately makes us feel good because we know we are contributing to worthwhile causes. And the flip side is…
When we don’t feel good about our actions, we can’t truly enjoy the rewards those actions bring. Try the Gold Fish Test – if the world knew the details of your actions, how would you and they feel? Worry isn’t worth it, secrets cause stress.
Love Not Logic Prompts Giving – People need clear, compelling visions of the benefits their gifts provide and a love for the cause in order to support them enthusiastically.
It’s a twist on the old sales adage, “Logic makes people think, emotions make them act.” Build benefits and love before asking for expanded contributions.
There’s an important difference between really wanting to do something and feeling we must, ought or have to do it.
Love Propels Happiness And Giving – Demonstrate how to feel good, proud and joyful about giving. Drive giving with desire.
Acquire The Qualities You Admire In Others – Seek good role models and visions of excellence which help to define the steps to achieve them.
Truly happy, successful people are usually very kind, caring, honest, charitable and compassionate.
Look Like and Live Like the Leaders You Admire. You’ll find they usually give very generously.
Action, Activity and Achievement Are Keys To Happiness. Doing Good Makes Us Feel Good.
Explore HappinessHabit.com for more happiness insights.
Copyright © 2007, Michele Moore. All Rights Reserved. This material may NOT be published, broadcast, distributed or rewritten without permission from the authors.
Tags: giving, goodness, habitually happy, happiness habit, happy, love, michele moore
I love your blog. What a great idea! Keep up the awesome work.
Love & Gratitude,
Tina
Think Simple. Be Decisive.
~ Productivity, Motivation & Happiness
Happiness is a key part of life.
Without it, life would be meaningless.
With it, life is much more enriched and enjoyable.
Through it, anything is possible.
If everyone worked towards the common purpose of being happy and ensuring that everyone else was happy, then war would end, suffering would, to some extent, be finished. Happiness is the cure to the problem that is causing this world to die.
War is the furthest thing in the mind of someone who is happy, and who is trying to ensure that everyone else is happy.
A cancer patient will look past the pain they feel and feel happy in the knowledge that at least their friends and family are with them, doing their best to make them feel happy.
If someone encounters a problem, then instead of getting frustrated and angry, they can simply smile and tackle the problem with a clear head, ensuring all the time that no one is hurt by their actions.
Global happiness is the key to a unified and harmonic world. Be Happy today!!!
You point to the best resources one has in order to become more happy: goodness and giving. The things we do for the others and to the others are reflected back to us.
Great post