Choose to be happy

 Most people would like more happiness in their lives. The interesting thing about happiness is how much of it is actually within our control. Researchers have found that about 50 percent of our happiness comes from set points that are genetically determined. Another 10 percent comes from our circumstances in life. The remaining 40 percent of our happiness is determined by our behavior, and it is this 40 percent that we can control. We can choose to be happier by controlling aspects of our lives that promote happiness.

Perhaps one of the primary ways to be happier is to express gratitude for all the things we have. I recently read someone who said that much of the world would love to have your problems. What they meant was that many of the problems we struggle with are first-world problems. We get upset because a car repair cost more than we though it would while much of the world would love to own a car. We get frustrated because the case of bottled water we buy went up 75 cents a case. Much of the world would love to have clean water to drink. You get the idea. We have much for which to be grateful, and we need to learn to be grateful and to express that gratitude to the right people. When you tell someone how much they mean to you both you and that individual are blessed.

A second behavior that promotes happiness is being optimistic. Too many people walk around like Eeyore. They live with a gloom-and-doom attitude. With that kind of attitude it's impossible to be happy. Optimistic people believe in themselves and their abilities. They look forward to the future and believe they have more control over their destiny. They set goals believing they will achieve them, and they often do. Optimism and happiness go hand-in-hand.

Closely related to optimism is positive thinking. Zig Ziglar used to refer to the opposite of positive thinking as stinkin' thinkin'. Positive thinking people believe in the best of others and themselves. They look for the silver lining in every dark cloud. It's very hard for positive thinking people to get down, and if they do get down they don't stay down very long.

We can increase our level of happiness by practicing acts of kindness towards others. Occasionally you will hear of someone in a drive-through restaurant who pays for the meal for the car behind them. I recently read where that happened, and the person who received the free meal paid for the car behind her, and this went on for several cars. Don't you know each of those people left there just a little happier than they were when they pulled into the drive-through lane? There's something about doing something nice for someone that makes you feel better.

While there are many other things we can do to improve our level of happiness we will just mention one more: learning to forgive. So many people carry years of bitterness within themselves. Someone has hurt them, and they cannot forgive that individual. Unforgiveness makes it impossible to be happy. When we refuse to forgive someone we are allowing that person to hurt us a second time, and we should not give them that much control over our lives. Forgiveness is not easy, but we must find a way to forgive others if we want to truly be happy in this life.

If we control 40 percent of our happiness level then we truly can choose to be happy.