Happiness Blog

Happiness And Pride

Pride Is One of the Most Important and Misunderstood Aspects of Happiness

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

Pride Is An Important Part of Feeling Good About Ourselves, It Is a Healthy Part of Happiness.

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. Other people’s opinions of us run our lives. We 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 very 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 and 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, limiting, false elevation and pseudo enhancement of self?

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

Trumpet Triumphs, Celebrate Successes, Delight in Good Deeds, All Are Part of Healthy Pride and Are Keys to Happiness and Spiritual Success!!!!

For more see: Happiness Habit.com

Tags: happiness, happiness habits, happy, michele moore, pride
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Empathy Is Essential

Empathy Is Essential To Happiness

Empathy means we can sympathize and identify with other people’s pain,
situations and feelings.

Empathy is the core of compassion.

Empathy means we care about others, that we have concern for their welfare and well-being.

Habitually happy people characteristically exhibit abundant love and empathy. They genuinely care about people and the world around them. Love truly does propel happiness.

The More We Love, The Greater Our Happiness. Where there is no love, there is no happiness.

The empty, apathetic angst that characterizes the affluent and arrogant amplifies this truth.

People who place themselves above and apart from the rest of the world rarely experience the love, happiness or joy that flows so easily to people who eagerly embrace the entire world.

Evil people may love, but their love is limited and conditional.

The Best Way To Prosper Is To Help Others Prosper.

The Best Way To Be Loved Is To Love.

The Best Way To Be Happy Is To
Delight In Helping Others To Be Happy,
Especially Those Who Are Less Fortunate Than You!

For more Happiness Habits see HappinessHabit.com

Tags: empathy, happiness, happiness habit, happy, love, michele moore
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Happiness Lessons From The Godfather

Happiness Lessons From the Godfather

The Godfather movie trilogy illustrates many valuable Business and Leadership lessons.

It also illustrates some very important Happiness Habits, most importantly, the Dangers of Departing from Goodness.

In the beginning of Part I, young Michael Corleone is happy, idealistic and moral. He comes home from WWII as a hero. He wants to stay clean and clear of the family “business.”

He stayed happy and clean until his father’s life and “business” were threatened. He changed direction and killed two people.

As the trilogy continues, Michael is drawn deeper and deeper into violence, criminal dominance, alienation from goodness and separation from his family.

When the Godfather Part III ends, Michael is alone. He has it all financially, but nothing spiritually or emotionally. He has lost his family, his loved ones and himself. He is empty and desolate.

He has supreme success in a life of crime. In time, a rival may kill him and end his misery. What does he have to live for? To look forward to? To strive for?

Don’t Depart From Goodness
Make Goodness Your Guiding Goal

Always Try To Do Your Best, Be Your Best, Follow The Best Path You Know

No matter how things turn out, you know you did your best and you could do no more. You are blameless and your conscience will be clear. A clear conscience is central to all happiness and spiritual success.

Tags: godfather, happiness, happiness lessons, happy, michele moore
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Forgiveness and Happiness

Forgiveness Means Not Letting
Past Pain Determine Present
Or Future Actions

Forgiveness Offers Freedom –
Freedom From Pain
Freedom of Thought And Action

Forgiveness Does NOT Mean Forget,
Stuffing Our Feelings Or
Letting Others Hurt Us Again

Forgiveness Does NOT Mean Failing To Fight For What Is Right And Good

Holding On To Resentments And Grievances IS A Decision To Suffer And Make Others Suffer

Resentments and revenge ruin and run present and future moments. Resentment allows past pain to control us, our feelings and actions. That’s not the way to happiness and spiritual success.

Happy people don’t hold on to misery. They resolve to learn from bad experiences, gain from their pain and move forward. Unnecessary suffering is masochistic, inflicting pain on others sadistic.

Forgiveness does not mean “Door Mat.” People who don’t fight for their rights and freedom loose them!

None of the great religious or spiritual leaders in history were wimps. They all took strong stands and fought for their beliefs. Habitually Happy people are NOT Wimps. They do refuse to be controlled by past pain. They resolve to let pain go quickly.

They make good decisions based on accurate assessments of reality, worthwhile goals and positive intentions.

Forgiveness Means Not Letting Past Pain Control Present And Future Actions. It Offers Freedom From Pain And Angry Decisions. Forgiveness Does NOT Mean Forget. It Does NOT Mean Failing To Fight For What Is Right!

See Happiness Habit for more happiness insights and wisdom.

Tags: forgiveness, happiness, happiness habit, happy, michele moore
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Evil People

Some people enjoy being mean. Evil people enjoy causing hurt and harm, it gives them a sense of power, control and superiority.

They may hide your keys, snicker while you search for them and blame you for not being better organized. Benign? It costs you time and emotional well-being.

Empowered, evil tyrants like Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot kill millions of people without regret.

They have no consciences, no guilt, no remorse or empathy, no care about right or wrong. They do whatever they please, their only concern is getting caught or being stopped.

Law enforcement and medical professionals call them psychopaths, sociopaths, antisocial. They are at least 4% of our population.

They are often very articulate, charming, attractive and likable. This makes them very dangerous. They look and act normal but they have no morals, no concern for anyone but themselves.

They are adept at hiding their true feelings and evil intentions. They are criminals, con artists, psychopathic ceos, corporate bullys, petty tyrants.

Good people don’t believe people can be so evil and do such evil things and still seem so normal.

This is how and why happy, healthy people are repeatedly taken in and victimized by their psychopathic manipulations and deceptions.

Evil people look like fine, upstanding citizens. Church involvement can provide convenient covers for their criminal activities.

Happy, Healthy, Successful People Beware:

Psychopaths often target the best and the brightest and try to humiliate and subjugate people who are better than they are. They love to dominate, control and destroy people who outshine or out perform them. Why People Are Targeted

Their haughty delusions of grandeur are driven by deep seated and well earned fears of inferiority.

Protection from Evil Psychopaths:

1) Recognize there are very sick, evil people who appear normal, kind, caring and considerate. They have no empathy or concern for anyone but themselves. Sociopaths are sadistic. They get pleasure from causing pain, especially to good people.

2) Power, Control and Superiority are their needs. They want to hurt you and they don’t want to be exposed. They blame you for the evil they’re doing and they want you to take responsibility for it and blame yourself as well.

3) Humiliation and Subjugation are their goals. If they can make you mad, look crazy or bad, you’ve played right into their hands.

4) Emotional Independence – Choose your mood, attitude and actions based on what’s best for you. Don’t give them control of your thoughts, actions or feelings. Don’t give them the control and dominance they crave.

5) Protect Yourself Physically and Mentally – don’t let them depress, distress or endanger you. Don’t let their evil dominate your life.

6) Shine Brightly – Strength, Genuine Goodness and Spiritual Success Are Your Best Defenses!

For more Happiness Habits see HappinessHabit.com

Tags: evil, evil people, goodness, happiness, happiness habit, happy, mean, michele moore
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Happiness in Relationships

What makes for happy, successful lives and relationships?

Friendship, Trust and Teamwork

There is no greater gift than to help a person achieve their goals.

Good happy relationships help people achieve their goals and their dreams!

“But we’re so different!” is a frequent concern. People who work, live or spend time together happily and successfully grow together over time. We are enriched by differences and learn from them.

Key questions to ask…

Are our goals the same? Do we want to achieve the same things? Do we want to travel to the same destinations in five, ten and twenty years?
Is my life truly better with them or without them?
Are our values the same?
Are we compatible, do we enjoy spending time together?
Do I have FUN with this person? Do they make me laugh?

Do Your Homework Before Becoming Involved

Spend time building friendship, trust and teamwork. If you can’t do it early in a relationship, you probably won’t be able to do it later once your emotions are hooked.

There’s a big problem with allowing sexuality to drive relationships. A person who is inappropriate but sexually attractive draws us into situations that are not good for us. The relationship supplies sexual highs but none of the key components of a good, healthy, successful relationship.

Friendship, trust and teamwork carry relationships over long distances and through difficult times towards happiness, success and achieving our dreams.

Focus on Friendship, Trust and Teamwork for happy, spiritually successful relationships!

See Happiness Habit for more happiness resources.

Tags: happiness, happiness habit, happiness resources, happy, happy relationships, michele moore
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Detach from Unnecessary Distress and Despair

Why do we often embrace, expand and wallow in our emotional pain?

Emotional Pain Is A Powerful Distractor That Robs Us of Happiness and Spiritual Success.

Engaging In Unnecessary Pain is Masochistic. So why do we do it?

Emotional pain is a powerful source of negative energy that seizes and holds our attention. It’s nature’s way of saying we need to stop what we’re doing to take care of things.

Thinking About Bad Things, and Reliving Painful Scenarios Gives Us Powerful Jolts of Negative Energy. They Are Our Own Personal Horror Shows.

We are both energized and made miserable by this emotional pain. I’s a source of negative energy that brings misery.

Sources of energy are attractive to us… laughter, love, thrills, great music, exercise, elevating experiences, sexual attractions, triumphs and achievement. Emotional pain that gives us jolts of negative energy is also attractive, but in a misery making way.

Remembering and Reliving Misery, Reinforces Our Misery. Reliving distressing situations becomes our own personal horror shows. They gives us jolts of energy with a large negative toll.

Recognize it for what it is, a jolt of negative energy from a bad source. Ask yourself,

“Is this positive or productive?”
“Is this helping me in some way?”
“Is this the best use of my time and attention?”

If not, detach and decisively resolve to NOT to give it a moment more of your time, attention or well-being. Painful thoughts are robbing you of pleasant present opportunities for no reason.

Detach and Distract Yourself from Destructive Misery, Distress and Despair.

Resolve to Direct Your Attention to Positive, Pleasant Solutions, Opportunities and Activities.

See Happiness Habit for more happiness resources.

Tags: despair, distress, emotional pain, happiness, happiness habit, michele moore, misery, pain
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Happiness, Goodness & Giving

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.

Tags: giving, goodness, habitually happy, happiness habit, happy, love, michele moore
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Happiness in Retirement

Many people who truly love their work never want to retire. Then time or mandatory retirement catches up with them and they have no choice.

People who dislike their work can’t wait until the magic time comes.

The question everyone faces is… Then what?

Is a life of leisure all it’s cracked up to be?

What’s the secret to a happy retirement?

If you’re retired and NOT happy, try this…

Find something that makes you mad as hell and go fix it. Or decide to fix a small part of it you can influence and improve. Find something meaningful and worthwhile to devote your life to and work at it diligently.

Find ways to make the world or part of it a better place.

Personal purpose and productivity are important keys to happiness.

A retired banking acquaintance who maintains two large homes and has traveled widely recently quipped,

“Retirement is not all it’s cracked up to be.” He’s a cynic who describes himself as “skeptical” and likes to poke fun at my happiness endeavors.

“Travel?” I asked.

“Be there, done that,” he replied. “We’ve been every where we want to go and there’s no where we want to go back.”

“Passions?” I inquired.

“I don’t have any,” he answered.

“Volunteer work?”

“Did plenty of that while I was at the bank” he answered. After he walked away I realized what he probably really needed was a challenge, something to sink his teeth into.

We spend our lives building and creating businesses and professional careers. Then we walk away thinking our lives will be better when we don’t have to do anything at all. For some it is, for many it is not.

A friend who winters in Naples, Florida comments that many senior executives retire there and then die quickly in three to five years. Their minds and spirits are invigorated by the business challenges they face. Without them, they expire.

It’s as if the universe is saying, You’ve spent your life making money, now it’s time to give back or you may die quickly.

Find a challenge you can sink your teeth into. Make the world a better place. Find something that makes you mad as hell and go fix it. It’s a great way to feel happy, productive and enjoy a long retirement.

See HappinessHabit.com for more happiness insights and resources.

Tags: happiness, happiness habit, happy retirement, michele moore
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Fight with Finesse

Defend Your Happiness – Your good mood, your spiritual freedom and your turf against people, events and things that might take them away!

http://FightwithFinesse.com explores the Fine Art of Cheerful Corporate Combat.

Continually Radiate Confident, Relaxed, Energized Well-being.

Smile As You Speak. Speak slowly, project your words powerfully and purposefully. Talk to the back of the room. Push back with positive personality. Adopt an aura of amused, attractive assertiveness.

Emphasize Positives – Benefits, advantages and rewards of your position and suggestions. Avoid personal attacks, criticism and character assassination.

Don’t Disagree, Argue or Say, “No!” State contrary positions in clear, concise, positive, compelling terms. Emphasize and expand the benefits and rewards of your position and the dangers of doing things differently.

Base Your Position on Good Goals and High Ideals EVERYONE Can Embrace and Few Can Fault.

Don’t React Emotionally – Hold on to your personal power. Reacting to an adversary’s attacks gives them control over your actions and feelings. Chart your own course, don’t give them control.

Hook Attention with Abundant Positive Energy – Agree and direct the discussion your way. Positive energy attracts attention and makes people want to listen.

Don’t Look to your Audience for Approval. Seeking approval gives adversaries power and control over your feelings.

Remember Rebellion and Revolt Fuel Happiness – Revolt and rebel against anyone and anything that tries to control you, drag you down or depress your positive spirits. Don’t give adversaries control of your thoughts or feelings.

Continually Radiate Confidence and Relaxed, Energized Well-being. Try to touch everyone you meet with a positive spirit.

For more happiness habits see HappinessHabit.com

The Fine Art of Cheerful Corporate Combat – FightWithFinesse.com

Tags: fight finesse, happiness, happiness habit, michele moore
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