Can You Project Happiness into Your Future?

Forbes magazine, in an August 2019 article entitled How To Be Happy: 20 Ways To Be Happier Today by Zack Friedman, bestselling Author of The Lemonade Life, outlines some key strategies for acheiving happiness.

Here are a few of his suggestions to be happier today:

• Gratitude
• Look for the good in things
• Believe that you have the power to change your life
• Practice happiness
• Have an open mind

—How to Be Happy, by Zach Friedman

If I could have a quick cup of coffee with Mr. Friedman, I’d first thank him for a wonderful article, but then I’d ask him if he thought these things can be done in advance.

Each morning I get up I fill out my plans for the day in my Monk Manual and at the end of the day I review my day. One thing I am learning is how much I enjoy simplifying my hopes way down to a few things and then evaluating the impact those things have had on my day. Journaling is a good way to contemplate, but also to preject an attitude of happiness into your day, your attitude, and your life.

It forces you to look ahead with hope.

What if we spent our todays in an attitude of gratitude for our tomorrows? Let our gratitude extend out past where we are sitting—to greet our future—already happy?

How much more rich would our lives be if we could do this as a daily practice—pick something about tomorrow to get excited about? With a pandemic raging in the world around us, we can get so isolated and feel down about tomorrow. Let's turn that around and find something to look foreard to. Even if it is hard to do, we can make the choice to make the best of what we have. We can decide to live happy, even under dire circumstances.

What are you excited about in your life? If it’s something as simple as a nice cup of coffee in the morning or a new pair of socks—if it makes you happy, then it is certainly worth celebrating.

~ Christina M. Ward

Follow for more life hacks, news, and stories of the human experience.