If you really want to be happy in life, do these 9 things every day

We all want to be happy and enjoy our lives. 

But if you really want to be happy it’s important to focus less on how you feel and much more on what you do. 

Here are the daily habits that will make you happy if you stick to them. 

1) Try to be of service 

It sounds paradoxical, but often to find your own happiness you need to focus on others. 

Modern society and consumer culture teaches the opposite, and from a young age many of our belief systems tell us that life is about individual success. 

There’s certainly an important place for finding your own power and succeeding!

But the more you focus only on your own needs, the lonelier and more disconnected you feel. 

It’s a biological and psychosocial fact: humans are made to relate to each other and help each other. 

Whether it’s volunteering some of your time each day to help others or just doing a few favors to colleagues at work, the habit of seeing what you can do for other people instead of just yourself will build a great foundation for fulfillment. 

2) Say thanks to people 

This is another daily secret of those who feel happy at a deep level:

They say thanks at least once a day to somebody who’s done them a favor that day or in past days. 

There are many ways you can do this, and it’s not the same as practicing gratitude or being in some meditative state. 

By this I mean literally saying thanks in a real way that goes beyond simply saying the words “thanks.”

This means actually expressing a detailed thank you to somebody who helped you out. 

• It could be an email to an old friend wishing them well and thanking them for all their support over the years…
• It could be a short text to your landlady wishing her happy holidays and thanking her from the bottom of your heart for her professionalism and attentiveness since you moved in…
• It could be saying thank you to your mom for cooking an amazing meal when you went home to visit and really meaning it, including complimenting the specific ingredients she used and helping wash up the dishes afterwards! 

Just say thanks once a day to somebody specific and for a specific reason! 

3) Stay true to your values 

Imagine the following:

You chase your dreams and achieve them, but you go against many of your core values and ethics in the process of getting there. 

So you got what you want, but you played dirty to get there and became a person you’re a bit ashamed to look at in the mirror. 

Did you really win? 

True happiness requires finding your core values and lines you won’t cross and then sticking to them. 

Because even if being “ethically flexible” leads to some successes, it’s bound to make you lose respect for yourself in the long run. 

4) Exercise and look after your body 

Those who are fulfilled don’t forget about their body. 

This means exercising regularly, eating well, getting a restful sleep and caring for your hygiene and health in every way possible. 

There’s no need to become a machine, but it is important to look after your well-being. 

Hiring a personal trainer and going that extra step can also be well worth the price. 

Happiness doesn’t happen by mistake and it’s crucial to respect our physical vessel if we want to attain higher levels of spiritual and emotional well-being. 

5) Avoid sleazy gurus and fake spirituality

Those who are looking for happiness can often fall into a trap: 

They buy into a simplistic and harmful idea that somebody else or a specific teaching will “save” or “fix” them. 

The result is disempowerment and often going down dark spiritual or religious paths that teach people they are unworthy, faulty and to blame for everything going wrong in their life. 

Money is often involved as well as subservience to supposedly buy your way out of being “broken” or impure. 

I happen to believe there is such a thing as becoming closer to truth and more pure, but I also see clearly how people abuse positions of power claiming to get you to that point or “take” you there by their own power and magical knowledge. 

This is a lesson I learned from the shaman Rudá Iandé, who has spent over three decades helping people discover their purpose and power in life. 

Rudá isn’t some guru claiming to give you all the answers or “fix” you:

He’s a person who’s discovered how to unlock his own power and give you the tools to do it for yourself as well. 

Click here to watch the free video and bust the spiritual myths that are holding you down. 

6) Get your financial house in order (one day at a time) 

Finances are something we tend to think of in a longer-term way:

Many people keep a monthly budget, for example, or focus on their yearly salary. Then they end up more or less “winging it” and ending up very depressed or frustrated over their monetary situation when they end up in debt or having barely broken even at the end of the year. 

But when you break it down to weeks and days, you actually gain a much clearer picture on your finances. 

The fact is that many of us don’t pay attention to how much we’re spending or saving on a daily basis and then end up in debt or very frustrated the end of the month or the end of the year. 

Here’s the key ABC of financial security: 

1. Write down your annual income, then subtract how much you want to save from it. This is your spendable income.
2. Divide your spendable income by 12 for monthly spendable income. Divide this by 4 for your weekly spendable funds. Divide this by 7 for your daily spendable funds.
3. Only spend this amount maximum per day. No last-minute splurging at expensive restaurants or bars, no impulse buys of an expensive new shirt “just because.” 

The key here is to keep a small notebook or file on your phone or device that tracks how much you’re spending a day.

Then, apart from emergencies, completely 100% refuse to spend above that limit unless you directly and irrevocably remove that spending from any spendable amounts later in the month. 

7) Keep a brief daily journal

I personally keep a short journal in my agenda book. 

It’s almost more like notes but I also write down goals, strong feelings I have had and things I want to focus on in the coming days and week ahead. 

This helps me get my thoughts in order and crystallize and reflect back on some experiences I’ve been having and what they mean to me. 

As Ann Pietrangelo advises: 

“A journal is a good way to organize your thoughts, analyze your feelings, and make plans.

And you don’t have to be a literary genius or write volumes to benefit.”

8) Spend an hour per day device-free 

Another daily habit to keep up is to spend an hour per day device-free. 

During this time, take a short nap (siesta) or a light walk in nature.

You’ll feel refreshed and revitalized and a bit more human than if you just stay parked in front of your computer or phone the entire day. 

I’ve known many great people who end up getting drained and frazzled because they stay glued to their devices all day, including even while eating lunch at work. 

The result is often shallow breathing, failure to relax and a constant “on mode” that leaves you feeling totally depleted at the end of the day. 

Make sure to untether from your devices at least one hour a day and put all ringer except emergencies off. 

9) Do compare yourself to others 

Almost any self-help article will advise you not to compare yourself with others in order to be happy. 

I’ve come to disagree with this advice and here’s why: 

1. It’s inevitable we compare ourselves with others and notice the lives of others and it’s self-gaslighting to pretend that we don’t get envious, sad, happy or confused by those around us. Humans are social creatures, of course we do.
2. When you compare yourself with others it doesn’t have to be in a negative or disempowering way. You can see what others have accomplished or are struggling with and say “I want that,” or “thank God I don’t have that situation.”
3. It’s not only natural to do this, it helps motivate and empower you to go after your goals. 

How will you know when you’re truly happy? 

You’ll know because you won’t be wondering if you’re happy or even thinking about it. 

You’ll just be happy and living in the present. 

Being happy on a deeper level doesn’t mean you’ll never have hard times or moments of crisis, it just means that those times will be worth it.