Andrew Mathews is a well-known Australian speaker and writer who speaks and writes extensively on happiness. The author of Being Happy and How Life Works (among others) was one of the popular speakers at the National Achievers Congress 2014 in Singapore held on May 30-June 01. Over two different sessions delivered even as he sketched cartoons, he listed several mantras for being happy and attracting perennial happiness which are summarised below.

Choose to be happy
Happiness is not an accident. It is a choice. Everyday we may come across a fork in the road. Whatever happens or whichever path we choose, we can make a conscious choice to happy. How we respond to a situation determines whether we are eventually happy or not.

Pain is inevitable, but misery is a choice. Happiness is a daily decision.

Don’t postpone happiness with “Ifs”
We tend to postpone happiness. If we are successful, then we will be happy. However, recent research in positive psychology has shown that things work the other way round. Happy people tend to be more successful ie. happiness leads to greater success. It is a cause rather than the effect.

Keep negative thoughts at bay
Negative thoughts are a lot like rats near a garbage dump. No sooner does one have a negative thought than it is followed by a series of negative thoughts.

Look for the good things in any situation
Happy people are great practitioners of The Donut Principle ie. they are able to focus on the good, on what is there instead of what is not there. So, anytime you are faced with a situation that bothers you, ask “what is the one good thing about this situation?”.

Accept the Ups and Downs in your stride
Remember the Law of Progress– progress doesn’t happen in a straight line. There will be ups and downs.

Take small steps towards your goal
It is easy to be overwhelmed by large tasks or challenges. Follow the “Elephant Principle” (ie. the hypothetical how to eat an elephant) and take things one bite at a time. Do things little by little so that you are not overwhelmed and you will continue to make progress and have the sense of accomplishment.

Andrew Mathews then listed several simple and practical steps to enable one to follow the above mantras for happiness. Come to think of it, these are steps that each one of us can take without too much effort- if only we decide to. The world will certainly be a much happier place if each of us takes these simple steps.

Record the good things that happen to you on a daily basis
Write down the three good things that happened to you in a day, each day. Make a habit of doing so, and over a period of time, looking out for the good will become second nature.

Create a gratitude board
Record the good things that happened to you in pictures and put them up on a board to be a reminder. Instead of thinking of happiness in the past tense, aka, How happy I was, say How lucky and thankful I am. One of the most common characteristics of genuinely happy people is a sense of gratitude.

Exercise
Keep the body in shape; be healthy. A healthy body is a great contributor to a happy mind.

Respect yourself
Look at yourself with respect; feel good about yourself. How you feel and make yourself feel has a huge bearing on how happy you are, and by extension, how successful you will be.

Be kind
Look for what you can do for people who cannot do anything for you in return. Be kind without any expectation from that act of kindness. The happiness you get from doing this will grow manifold.

Be challenged
Extend and stretch yourself, get out of the comfort zone. Continually challenging yourself at work will help you enjoy the work more.

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Article contributed by: Seema Nirwal
Seema heads up online product development and management for a large B2B media company. She is passionate about systems, processes and continuous skills enhancement. She was one of over 5000 attendees at the National Achiever’s Congress 2014 in Singapore.