It’s time to stop hanging out with the wrong people. There might be people in your life that you really don’t enjoy being with but feel obligated for some reason you’re long consciously forgotten about. It’s time to give them up!

You can’t run away from your problems forever! I mean, you can, I guess…. but you will never find happiness down that path!

It’s not a good approach to lie. But the worst person you can lie to is yourself. Kidding yourself about any aspect of your life will never lead you anywhere fruitful.

Do you often sacrifice what you need (or want) for the sake of making other people happy? While you may gain happiness in the immediate future when you see somebody else happy, you certainly won’t achieve long-term happiness by not getting what it is that you truly need.

This is another case of doing something for someone else. Too often we pretend to be somebody we’re not because we’re trying to be the person we think someone wants us to be. Whether that’s under pressure from parents or someone else, or simply because we think it will make the object of our affection want to be with us, it will not bring any real long-term happiness.

The reason that the past is called the past is because it is quite literally in the past. In other words, it’s time to remember that whatever and whoever is the source of some kind of regret, is done with and you can’t change it now. Move on.

One of the hardest things to do as a human being is simply follow your heart and live your dreams. This is usually because we’re so scared to make a mistake. This is not a problem that you alone face. Most people on the surface of the Earth are faced with this hurdle.

Break it down simply; if you are so afraid of doing anything because o the threat of failure, you will get nothing done either way. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way…

This is a bit like the one about letting go of the past only it’s a little more specific.

Logically, you know that you can’t go back and change the past and so it is absolutely pointless to keep blaming yourself for things that happened. Sure, you can learn your lessons and move on, but to berate yourself over and over is futile and to the detriment of any chance at true happiness.

The Beatles told us that money can’t buy love. They could just as easily have backed that up with a b-side about how money can’t buy happiness in general. Some may argue that they’d literally be happier if they had enough money to buy the things they desired, but what this means is not so much the opportunity to spend money itself, but the sending of money representing a masking of the fact that you aren’t happy.

For example, perhaps you haven’t had the relationship success that you desire and so you spend you money on an expensive car to compensate. Sure, that could make you immediately happy, however, it won’t give your heart and soul what it craves.

If you aren’t happy with who you are on the inside, then a long-term relationship will only mask it for a little while no matter how awesome the person may be!

This is just as much about thinking too much. Spend less time worrying and more time doing. For many other people, we could say the opposite. But it’s not those people who tend to over think and worry about the future of their happiness, is it?

Waiting until you are “ready” for anything (be it a relationship, your dream career, etc) will see you wait until the day you die. The truth is that nobody is ever truly “ready” for anything. Whatever it is, take the first step right now. Forget failure.

Beginning a new relationship for any other reason than you really like the person is a bad idea. Masking unhappiness with a new found infatuation will only complicate your own issues, which you need to sort out before bringing someone else in to it.

On the other side of the coin, there are many who reject a new relationship based on the fact that they remember how much they got hurt last time. Judging a new person based on the relationship you had with someone in the past is bound to see the thing doomed from the start. Start a fresh and give them a go on their own merits.

Except in the absolute literal sense of competition, you aren’t competing with anyone else but yourself. It pays to remember that the only person you have to be better than is the person you were yesterday.

Falling in to the habit of allowing yourself to be jealous of others will only bring you bulk unhappiness. Be glad and even proud that your friends or family around you are thriving and let the positivity permeate your own life and achievements, even if they don’t appear as grand in scale. Again, you’re not competing with anyone else.

Complaining puts you in a frame of mind where it comes to be something you rest upon. When things aren’t going your way, complaining about them over and over will only reinforce the futility of it all.

Stay positive.

Forgive people for what they have done or their perceived shortcomings. It might not seem like th easiest thing to do, however, if happiness is the goal (and presumably it is for everyone) then you will quite literally have no chance at true happiness unless you stop harboring ill feelings towards certain people who you feel have done you wrong.

Then, there’s the people in your environment who bring you down, either because they figure it will help them somehow, or because they’re just plain old toxic. Either way, you must be impervious to this type of behavior. But you can’t keep a thick skin forever. It’s best to surround yourself with positive people and be done with those who try and bring you down.

Maybe it’s time to stop explaining yourself to other all the time. You don’t need to explain who you are. The people who care about you already know who you are and that’s why they’re there. Those who don’t either won’t believe it anyway or don’t care. So why bother?!

The absolute best time to stop and take a break fro yourself is the time when you feel like you can’t afford to. This i when you’re the most flustered and it is this time that you need all of your resources. Take a short break from trying to tackle all of your problems, if only long enough to clear your head.

…And while you’re there, take the time to “stop and smell the roses”. Or, you know, whichever flowers you want!

If you keep on trying to make some aspect of your life perfect, you’ll lose sight of what happiness even means. Nothing is perfect. No person is perfect. It’s an illusion which functions to make you unhappy – the opposite of where you want to be.

Maybe it’s time to stop following the path of least resistance. Those motivational posters that you read in the gym like “nothing worth doing is easy” are there for a reason… Even if they do sound like cliches – they’re there because they’re usually true.

Do something crazy. Do something extraordinary.

If you’re not fine then you needn’t try and act as though it is. Be truthful to yourself and be truthful to those close to you. Problems are only problems until you address them and solve them. Get on with doing exactly that or, by definition, it is impossible to happy.