But do they work? And how can you benefit the most from self-help books? Is changing your life really as easy as picking up a book? Maybe – if you learn to do it right. Self-help books can be a powerful tool when used properly. They are cheaper than therapy and can be just as effective. You can progress in your own time, and most people find it more comfortable than seeking professional help.

Knowing when, how, and why to benefit from self-help books will help you to avoid the pitfalls of fads and fake gurus, and get the most out of your time and money. In this article, we’ll discuss the ins and outs of self-help books, to help you realize your full potential in your own time and without breaking the bank.

Who can benefit from self-help books?

Everybody can benefit from self-help books, but not necessarily in every situation. According to one review of the scientific literature, self-help books are more effective at helping us learn new life skills, like assertiveness, problem-solving, and even tidiness.

That’s good news for everybody since we can all benefit from learning new skills that help us to navigate our lives. Nobody is perfect, and we all have areas where we’d like to improve. If you’re like most people, you’ve sometimes wished you could be more patient or more outgoing, more resilient, or less concerned with what others think.

Maybe you’re just looking for ways to be happier. These are the kind of skills where self-help books can be really useful.

Can self-help books be bad for you?

The same study showed that self-help books are effective in the treatment of anxiety and depression, but less so in other areas, like alcoholism and schizophrenia.

Self-help books can help you feel more empowered and in control of your life, but in some cases, they should be used with professional guidance.

If you suffer from depression, anxiety, or any other clinical disorder, consult a physician, psychologist, or therapist to know the best course of action to take. I

f you have persistent feelings of low mood, low self-esteem, loss of interest in activities you used to enjoy, or pervasive feelings of anxiety or fear, of which any last for more than two weeks, seek professional help. You can improve your life with professional intervention, which may include using self-help books.

The remainder of this article will focus on using self-help books to improve aspects of your life in a non-clinical setting.

How can you benefit from self-help books?

In the last decade, self-improvement has grown into a 10 billion dollar industry in the United States alone. More and more, people are taking their own wellness and happiness into their own hands. At the same time, we’re warier of self-help scams and self-proclaimed gurus.

There are thousands of self-help books out there – so how do you pick the one that’s right for you? And how can you separate the good from the bad?

Find the right self-help book for you

As with other self-improvement practices, like journaling for self-improvement, it starts by identifying your goals.

An easy way to do this is to make a list, starting with the sentence, “I want to learn to be more/less/better at ___________.” Think of the different ways in your life you would like to improve. When I made a similar list, here are some of the things I included:

I want to learn to be:

• more patient with my colleagues;
• better with money;
• less messy at home;
• better at leaving my work when I’m on holiday or with friends and family.

These are all learning goals that can benefit from self-help books. Your next step is to find the right self-help book for your goal. A quick internet search can usually turn up a number of books. For example, if you search in Google “self-help book patience”, you can find a number of books to help you be a more patient person, including:

• The Power of Patience: How to Slow the Rush and Enjoy More Happiness, Success, and Peace of Mind Every Day
• How to Be More Patient: An Essential Guide to Replacing Impatience with Patience
• Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living

You can read through the reviews on Amazon, look at how other people have rated the books, read a summary, and choose which book will work best for you.

By the way: Do you find it hard to be happy and in control of your life? It may not be your fault. To help you feel better, we’ve condensed the information of 100’s of articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet to help you be more in control.

Don’t Miss Out On Happiness

Find happiness with this 10-step mental health cheat sheet.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

How to make the most of reading self-help books

Now that you’ve found a self-help book you think you can benefit from, it’s time to dive in! Self-help books are a lot like relationships — you get back what you put in. Reading for self-improvement doesn’t have to be boring or tedious, but it’s something you should take seriously. There are a few general guidelines that will help you get the most of your self-help book.

1. Read the book thoroughly and with intention

Unless specifically instructed otherwise by the author, take the time to read through the book from start to finish. You never know what you may miss otherwise.

Make sure that you’re in an environment that supports self-improvement. It can be indoors or outdoors, at home or in a library or cafe, but it should be someplace that’s relatively quiet, free of distraction, and allows you to read your self-help book with intention and purpose. Avoid things like reading at work, reading with the TV on, and reading when you’re pressed for time.

If you only have 15 minutes to read, it’s probably better to wait until you have a bit more time and can really focus on what you’re reading without feeling rushed.

2. Be open to suggestions

You may not agree with everything that you read, but you’ve chosen this book for a reason. Remember that your ideas about a given topic may not include all the most recent research or may be colored by your own experiences.

Try to stay open while you’re reading. If you find something strange or doubtful, make a note of it to come back later. You may find that as the book progresses and you start putting things into practice, it ends up being true. In any event, don’t go in with a closed mind, or you may miss out on some life-changing advice.

3. Take notes, make plans, and put them into action

Almost every self-help book out there will have actionable advice – things you can actually do that will make a difference in your life. We really believe in this principle.

That’s why almost all of our articles include lots of practical advice that you can put into action. It’s the same with self-help books. Any self-help book that claims it can change your life without giving you any real-world examples or exercises to do or activities to practice is probably not worth your time.

With that in mind, we recommend taking notes from the book, making a plan of action based on the practical exercises you’re given, and then putting them into action.

Almost every self-help book out there will agree – if you don’t put in the work, you won’t get the results.

4. Journal about your progress

Tracking Happiness is all about recording your day-to-day life and finding out what works best for you. It’s another principle we strongly believe in. It’s also what’s going to allow you to get the most out of self-help books.

As you start to integrate the book’s advice into your daily life, you’ll want to record the experience. Write down any thoughts or feelings you were having at the time (even if they’re ones of doubt or dismay), whether you were successful, and why or why not.

The act of writing down these experiences will help you to understand them better, pick up on any patterns that could be areas of improvement (or achievements worth celebrating!), and by tracking your happiness, you can see what kind of impact it’s having on your life and well-being.

5. Enjoy the journey

Self-improvement takes a long time. You may read several self-help books before getting significant benefits, taking insightful information, useful exercises, and helpful tips from several of them.

Be patient and recognize that change takes time. To the best of your ability, try to enjoy the process. Celebrate your victories and focus on correcting negative behaviors without demonizing them or yourself.

Remember, there’s a reason the self-help industry is worth over 10 billion dollars in the US alone: everybody wants to be better at something, and you’re definitely not alone.

Accept your shortcomings as normal and natural, and then focus on trying to enjoy the process of self-improvement. You may find great comfort in taking control of an aspect of your life that previously frustrated you. At the same time, be patient and understanding with yourself.

The simple act of trying to get better is already a huge step in the right direction; allow yourself to feel proud of that step, and then continue making them.

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Do self-help books actually work?

Self-help books can be a valuable resource on your journey to happiness. We all have areas of our life where we’d like to improve, skills we’d like to learn, and behaviors we’d like to integrate or curb.

Self-help books can be a good way to achieve these goals, as long as you go about it properly.

Take the time to research the right book or books for you and your goals. Read with intention and open-mindedness. Take an active role in your self-improvement by taking notes, making plans, and putting them into action. Track your progress through journaling – in whatever form comes easiest to you.

But most of all, try to enjoy the process. Self-improvement isn’t about misery, it’s about mastery. So, is changing your life really as easy as picking up a book? Nope. But it’s a great place to start.

Now I want to hear from you! Are you a fan of self-help books? What were the ones that have helped you most? Did I miss anything in this article? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Christian Rigg Author

Academic researcher and writer with a passion for statistical analysis, neuropsychology and mental health.

The post The Benefits of Self-Help Books (Do They Even Really Work?) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

There are lots of different activities that can bring you happiness. Spending time in nature, exercising your creativity, and breaking a sweat are all great ways to be happier. These can all bring you peace of mind, a boost of endorphins, or a sense of accomplishment.

In this article, we’ll look at some of the best activities for making you happier – both right away and in the long term.

Find happiness activities outside in nature

It may come as no surprise, but spending time in nature is a great way to boost your happiness. And yet, more and more of us are spending less and less time outside.

What science says about spending time outside

One study found that almost half the American population failed to enjoy recreational outdoor activities in 2018. And it’s no better for Europeans. The average time spent outdoors was found by one meta-study to be a mere 1-2 hours per day… And that’s during the summer!

One of the main reasons is that our schools, homes and places of work tend to be removed from nature, both physically and conceptually.

So what exactly are we missing out on? There are a number of ways that spending time in nature can improve your happiness.

In fact, one study identified more than 20 different pathways between time spent in nature and positive effects on mental and physical health, including increased cognitive function, faster recovery from injury, and reduced stress, blood pressure and heart rate.

People who spend more time in nature tend to report higher levels of happiness.

By the way: Do you find it hard to be happy and in control of your life? It may not be your fault. To help you feel better, we’ve condensed the information of 100’s of articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet to help you be more in control.

Don’t Miss Out On Happiness

Find happiness with this 10-step mental health cheat sheet.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

How being outside can make you happier

How can you reap all these benefits?

Well, the easiest solution is also the most obvious one – spend more time outdoors! The practice of “forest bathing”, immersing oneself in nature, has become a popular pastime for Japan’s dense urban population. As one study concluded:

The beneficial effects of nature suggest a simple, accessible and cost-effective method to improve the quality of life and health of urban residents.

Studies have also shown that the more connected you feel to nature, the more benefits you receive from being in it.

So do your best to practice mindfulness when spending time outdoors. It doesn’t take much.

A study found that a mere 2 hours per week is enough to see significant improvement in mood and well-being. And it doesn’t matter if it’s broken up into smaller sessions, or all at once.

Creative happiness activities

Many have claimed that a tortured soul makes for profound art – but unless your goal is to be the next Van Gogh or Beethoven, creativity can be a window to profound happiness.

Study after study after study has shown that being creative can increase your happiness on a day-to-day basis, and in the long term.

Studies on creative activities and happiness

There are a number of different ways that being creative can make you happier.

For example, visual creativity has been linked to mental resilience, which a previous article on Tracking Happiness demonstrated has lasting effects on your overall happiness.

But regardless of the exact reasons, the relationship seems to be one of causation, not correlation. A study by psychologist Dr. Tamlin Conner found that creativity on one day predicted happiness on the next. That is, creativity on Monday means happiness on Tuesday. Not only this, but the study found that creativity and happiness worked together to create an “upward spiral” of positive affect.

The happier participants were, the more likely they were to be creative, which in turn made them happier, etc.

Creative happiness activity ideas

There’s an almost endless range of creative activities that can bring you happiness.

• Music calms neural activity and reduces anxiety.
• Visual arts allow us to express ideas that we have difficulty expressing through words and allow us to integrate and process emotional stressors.
• Dance and physical movement improves our body image, self-awareness, and helps us to better cope with loss and illness.
• Creative writing helps us deal with anger, exercise control over pain, and help us recover from trauma.

When creative, people feel more connected to themselves and the world around them, and better able to express and understand their emotions. In other words, creativity gives us insight and appreciation.

You can be creative any way you like – and there’s no study linking aptitude to effectiveness.

You can be the worst guitarist in the world, and as long as you play guitar regularly, you’ll still reap all the benefits of being creative.

The possibilities are limitless, and there are lots of ways to integrate creativity into your day-to-day life.

My favorite happiness activity

Cooking is how I express creativity as often as possible. Sometimes it’s nice to follow a recipe, but more often than not, I just look at what’s in my fridge, pull out a bunch of stuff, and see what I can do with it.

Sometimes the results are fantastic! Sometimes it’s not…

But I still enjoy the process of using my hands, exercising my imagination, and tasting my creations. Find something that calms your soul, and try to do it a few times per week.

If you’re not sure how to start, make a list of different things you’d like to try, and go through them one by one. (Yep, even figuring out how to be creative can be a creative process!)

Physical happiness activities

Your level of physical activity has a profound effect on your mental wellbeing and happiness. Exercise and physical activity are linked to happiness through a number of factors.

For instance, greater physical activity leads to more regular and higher quality sleep, especially during stressful periods.

Studies on physical happiness activities

As with creativity, the relationship is not merely correlational. Being physically active causes feelings of happiness. As the authors of one study noted:

People who were inactive were more than twice as likely to be unhappy as those who remained active [And] a change from active to inactive was associated with increased odds of becoming unhappy 2 years later.

What’s the best way to be physically active? Well, it’s pretty much up to you — although there are some guidelines.

First of all, don’t overdo it. It doesn’t take much to reap the benefits of being active: just one day per week or as little as 10 minutes is enough to make you happier.

Besides, the relationship between positive affect (happiness) and exercise isn’t linear. Instead, it’s what’s known as an “Inverted-U” function:

Basically, there’s an optimal point at which you get the most benefit for your hard work. After that, the law of diminishing returns kicks in, and you’ll get fewer benefits the more you sweat.

So don’t kill yourself at the gym thinking it will keep you on cloud nine. Like all things in life, physical exercising is all about balance.

The good news is, it doesn’t really matter what kind of exercise you do, as long as you enjoy it!

You can run, play tennis, go swimming, skip rope, lift weights. Go for a walk in nature for a double-dose of happiness, or take up dance classes to be active and creative!

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Wrapping up

To be happy, we must find activities to do – but not only for the sake of being happy. It’s important that activities bring you meaning and pleasure for their own sake. One of the goals of this article was to demonstrate the wide range of different activities that can help contribute to your happiness, so that you can find the ones that are best suited to you.

So get creative and find new ways to activate your happiness.

Christian Rigg Author

Academic researcher and writer with a passion for statistical analysis, neuropsychology and mental health.

The post These Are the Most Powerful Happiness Activities (As Per Science) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

Journaling allows you to put down on paper your myriad, often scattered daily thoughts, so you can better organize different aspects of your life. Most people already have the skills they need to bring about change, but need help staying focused. Daily journaling can do this, and it starts with building a new habit, maintaining it, and fully appreciating the beneficial changes in your life.

In this article, we’ll look at the real benefits, backed by science, plus how to get started, and how to keep things going. Daily journaling helps you take charge of your happiness, and we’ll show you how.

Why you should journal every day

It sounds like a big commitment, doesn’t it? Well, it is and it isn’t.

It does require some investment in the beginning, both in time and energy. But the secret to doing anything on a daily basis is to build a habit out of it.

Journaling for self-improvement

Self-improvement can take all kinds of different forms.

You may want to have more patience, deal with stress better, or to be more confident. You’re not the only one, and studies show that journaling can help.

Self-Efficacy, confidence, and control

Studies have shown that journaling can help improve one’s self-efficacy and locus of control.

Self-efficacy refers to one’s belief in their ability to succeed in a given task. High self-efficacy means feeling confident in your ability to deal with daily hurdles.

Locus-of-control is a related psychological term, which refers to the belief that you, rather than external forces, are in control of your life.

Increased self-efficacy and locus of control have been linked to greater happiness.

One study found that “Internal LOC is related to high self-esteem… [which] is a powerful and important psychological factor in mental health and well-being.”

And this study by van Zyl and Dhurup concluded that increased self-efficacy “seems to facilitate both satisfaction with life and happiness in general.”

Learning new skills

Studies have shown that self-improvement techniques are most useful for learning new skills – like assertiveness, problem-solving, and even being tidier.

Studies have shown that journaling mediates learning new skills by helping people to draw more connections, better understand others’ perspectives, and develop critical thinking.

Journaling for self-awareness

Self-awareness can be defined as the “conscious knowledge of one’s own character and feelings.” Being more self-aware can contribute to your happiness in a number of ways.

It means being better prepared for difficult situations, by having more control over your emotions, and better understanding the emotions of other people. You’ll be better able to deal with things out of your control, and anticipate how they’ll affect you.

Basically, greater self-awareness means understanding how your mind works, which puts you back in control. As the authors of one study put it:

Journaling enhances the self-discovery process, which increases self-awareness.

Their study included journaling as part of a three-tiered approach to improving self-awareness and self-care.

Journaling to deal with trauma

Journaling has long been a tool used by therapists to help people deal with trauma. And for good reason.

One review of “focused expressive writing” (journaling) found that it relates to “improvements in health and well‐being, across a wide array of outcomes and participant characteristics.” Another study found that “writing related to a distressing event [was] associated with … statistically significant decreases in distress and perceived burden.”

In fact, journaling can help you to flip the tables, and find benefits in events you once considered damaging or destructive.

A study in the Annals of Behavioural Medicine found that “Writers focusing on cognitions and emotions developed a greater awareness of the positive benefits of the stressful event … [which was] mediated by greater cognitive processing during writing.”

Journaling to remember positive life events

Your journal is your own personal time machine. You can go back to any page, any date or time from the moment you started (which is a great reason to start right now), and see what made you happy, or how you dealt with negative life events.

This does two things.

First of all, it helps you to put things in perspective. The ability to predict how good or bad events will impact your happiness in the future is called affective forecasting.

And it turns out that humans are truly terrible at it. We consistently blow things out of proportion and think those good events will make us happy for far longer than they do, and that a bad event will make us far more miserable than is actually the case.

By looking back in your journal, you’ll be able to recall how you felt when confronted with these situations and chuckle at how life-altering it seemed at the time. This is another kind of self-awareness and will help you to be a more emotionally stable person in the long run.

Second, it will allow you to recall positive life events. “Remembering the good times”, as it were, is actually an effective way to reinforce your emotional state and protect your mental health and happiness.

How to get started with daily journaling

Hopefully, you’re convinced of the many benefits of daily journaling. So what are the best ways to get started with daily journaling?

1. Form a new habit

Like any daily activity, it will be easier if you make a habit of it. A habit is “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.” When you start to realize all the benefits of daily journaling, you won’t want to stop.

Author of Atomic Habits, James Clear, has written a great guide for building new habits. You can find it here.

2. Start small

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

This is an ancient Chinese proverb that is certainly true of journaling. You don’t need to fill out pages on your first day. You don’t even need to fill one page.

Journaling is about self-expression; if you don’t have much to say, don’t say much. It’s as easy as that.

There are lots of ways to go about journaling. You can describe your day chronologically; lots of people find this easier. Or, just start with the part of your day you remember best, and go from there.

3. Ask yourself leading questions

Ask yourself lots of leading questions.

• Why was it memorable?
• How did you feel at that moment?
• What were you thinking?
• What did it remind you of?
• Have you had other situations like that?
• How did you deal with those?

Step into the shoes of a therapist or interested friend for a moment.

This is the power of journaling – getting to step back from your thought process and write critical questions about it. Imagine a close friend is telling you the same story and looking for help figuring out what it means. What kinds of questions would you ask them?

4. Write about things that are important to you

Your habit will be easier to keep up if it’s important to you – so write about things you care about. Once you’ve done your first few entries, start focusing more on things that made a difference to your day, or that you’re currently dealing with.

Ask yourself the same kinds of questions, but ask some harder ones too.

• Did I deal with it properly?
• How else could I have reacted?
• What precipitated the event?
• Why is it important to me?
• Why is it important to others?
• Did I do the right thing?

These are the kinds of things you should be evaluating every day. You’ll be more self-aware, and come to realize what is and isn’t in your control. That means increased self-efficacy and locus of control.

And remember, journaling isn’t just about your problems. Journaling is a way to celebrate your achievements, remember your happiest moments, and immortalize your victories. It’s a place to try and practice a positive mindset.

5. Try not to miss a day…

Once you’ve started, try to keep it going. On days when you really don’t feel like it, write something small. Write just a few words. Once you get started, you may find that the day’s pressures, fatigue, and stress flow out of you and onto the page.

Seriously, if we haven’t said it enough before: journaling is seriously therapeutic. But if you get through a few words and just can’t or don’t want to go any further, don’t stress.

Journaling isn’t about forcing yourself. At the very least, it should be useful, and hopefully, enjoyable. But it certainly shouldn’t make you feel miserable. The most important thing is to keep up the habit by writing what you can.

We’ve spoken before about minimum viable effort, and some days, that’s all you can manage. That’s fine. You did what was needed to keep the habit going, and that’s all you can ask of yourself.

One good way to keep things up when you don’t feel much like writing is to read through past journal entries. This may inspire you to write about your day today, or it may not. But journaling isn’t just about writing. It’s also about reading your words and reflecting on them. Then write down your reflections, and reflect on them. And so on.

But if you aren’t able to write more than a few words, try to read a page or two. That counts as journaling too.

6. … but if you do skip a day of journaling, then don’t panic

Whoops.

Okay, it happens. Nobody’s perfect (that’s what we’re here for, right?). You missed a day. Or two. Or a week.

It happens to everybody. You’re not a loser, you’re not a failure, you’re not “bad at journaling.”

Nobody, ever, in the whole history of journaling, since the beginning of time, has ever written every single day of their entire life since the day they first put pen to paper. Guaranteed. So relax. You’re in the same camp as Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Mark Twain, Charles Darwin, and Frida Kahlo — all famous journalers who definitely missed a day or two.

You can get right back up on the horse. Today. It’s seriously never too late. Don’t let a few days turn into a month and a lost habit. Go grab your journal, and write a few sentences, right now. Even if it’s just about the fact that you stopped journaling.

Okay, so how about some leading questions. Why did you stop? Any reason in particular? Too tired? Stressed? Not feeling it? Not getting out of journaling what you wanted? Great, let’s break that down (in your journal)!

Identify and resolve the issue that prompted you to stop journaling. Use those leading questions to identify what made you miss your writing habit. Now, develop strategies for how you’ll deal with it next time. Write those down. Next time you miss a day, go back to that entry – you’ll have already given yourself the answer.

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Wrapping up

Daily journaling can help you to organize your thoughts, overcome your hurdles, and increase your happiness. There are many different reasons why you should start journaling, lots of ways to go start, and simple methods for staying on track. So start your daily journal today, and see how it can make you happier.

Do you want to share your own experiences with daily journaling? Did I miss an awesome tip that you used to find happiness in your journal? I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Christian Rigg Author

Academic researcher and writer with a passion for statistical analysis, neuropsychology and mental health.

The post 6 Daily Journaling Tips to Create a Journaling Routine appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

There are three steps to journaling for self-improvement and self-growth. It starts with defining your goals and then understanding what’s keeping you from reaching those goals. Finally, you can implement journaling strategies that will help you overcome your challenges to reach your goals. By following these simple steps consistently, you can achieve your self-improvement goals.

We’ll discuss these steps with detailed examples. We’ll start by looking at some general tips on journaling for self-improvement, and how to get started. Then, we’ll go through each of the main steps in detail. Finally, I’ll show you how journaling for self-improvement has helped me to achieve one of my goals recently.

Journaling for self-improvement

Journaling for self-improvement doesn’t have to be complicated, and it doesn’t have to be time-consuming either. Journaling is a bit like meditation: it helps you stay focused, and gives you the tools you need for self-improvement. It also helps keep you accountable.

Getting started with journaling can be a bit daunting, but it’s something everybody can do well.

The great thing about journaling is that it’s personal – there’s no right way to do it! If you already keep a journal or track your happiness, that’s great – you may want to go straight to our guidelines on journaling for self-improvement. If not, take the time to read through this section on how to start your journal successfully.

Writing your first words

So you’ve decided to start journaling for self-improvement. Awesome! You just took a big step in the right direction. But what do you write about?

That fresh blank page can be daunting. As humans, we assign a lot of importance to beginnings, so you may not be quite sure how to start. One of the best ways is to simply describe your day. As the words get down on the page, you’ll remember thoughts and feelings you had in different situations, and have new ones about them.

Try writing about your day chronologically. Start with when you got up, and describe your day. How did you feel when you woke up? What were you thinking about? Were you excited about your day? Anxious?

Move from the start of the day to the end, and let your thoughts flow freely as you relive each experience. Some of them won’t be too interesting, others may get you thinking.

That’s how essayist and author David Sedaris approaches journaling:

If nothing big happened, I’ll reflect on a newspaper article or a report I heard on the radio. … When life gets really dull, I’ll just look out the window and describe the color of the sky. That will [always] lead to something else…

How much should you write?

In A Beginner’s Guide to Keeping a Journal, writer Kristin Wong talks about the theory of Minimum Viable Effort. This is the amount of effort needed to maintain a new habit. As it turns out, it’s not that much.

James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, explains Minimum Viable Effort like this:

The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start. Anyone can meditate for one minute, read one page, or put one item of clothing away… Once you’ve started doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it. What you want is a ‘gateway habit’ that naturally leads you down a more productive path.

When you start journaling for the first time, try writing only a few sentences. The most important thing about journaling for self-improvement is consistency. So start with a small effort: the very minimum possible effort. Once that’s done, all you have to do next time is the same or a little bit more.

Try to write at least a few times a week and work your way up to every day. When you don’t feel like it, stick to the Minimum Viable Effort to get a few sentences on the page. This “gateway habit” will become a powerful tool for self-improvement.

3 steps to journal for self-improvement and self-growth

There are lots of different ways to journal for self-improvement, but it can be helpful to have a series of steps to follow that keep you on track.

The following three steps can be used on a daily basis, or at the end of each week, to help you reflect on your self-improvement journey.

1. Define your goals

The first step is to determine exactly how you’d like to improve. There are no rules here. Your goals can be emotional, intellectual or physical. Emotional goals include things like being more outgoing, being kinder to strangers, more patient with your partner, or learning to love yourself more.

Some examples of intellectual goals are learning a new language, doing better in school, or trying to read more. Finally, physical goals include things like getting in shape, running a marathon, or hiking a mountain.

You’ll notice that many of your goals have an emotional, intellectual and physical component. That’s because humans approach most tasks in more than one way. Climbing a mountain may be a physical task, but you’ll probably experience some strong emotions along the way, and you will need to plan your route and make decisions as you go.

As you think about what you’d like to achieve, try to explore all three aspects of your goals.

2. Understand your blockers

Blockers are things that keep you from achieving your goals. These can be big or small and will take different amounts of time and effort to overcome. Don’t worry – journaling will help you figure out what they are and how to deal with them.

Blockers can be internal and external. Internal blockers are those which come from within: fear of starting, rejection or failure, lack of motivation, and indecision are all common internal blockers.

For each of your goals, try to think of what internal blockers you might encounter along the way, or that you’ve already dealt with.

Most people have a few internal blockers that come up repeatedly. Journaling for self-improvement will help you better understand these recurring blockers.

External blockers are those which come from the outside world. They might include time constraints because of your busy schedule or physical distance from an important resource.

3. Implement daily strategies

This is where journaling for self-improvement will be a real game-changer. For each of your blockers, try to think of different ways to cope with them.

Two things are true of external blockers: they’re often used as an excuse, and they usually relate to some internal blockers. These might take some tough self-love to really understand.

If your goal is to get in shape, an external blocker might be: “No gyms around me.”

But there are lots of other ways to get in shape. What’s really going on is probably a lack of motivation or fear of failure. External blockers may take some creative thinking, but they’re usually not what really keeps you from achieving your goals.

Internal blockers are what keep most of us from accomplishing our self-improvement goals. It’s totally normal if you don’t have the answers right away for dealing with your internal blockers.

Luckily, there are lots of resources out there to help you. Many of your internal blockers can be remedied by building your mental resilience, overcoming your fears, being more self-aware, and learning to accept yourself.

Putting it all together

Once you’ve defined strategies for dealing with your blockers, start implementing them in your daily life. When you encounter a blocker, recall your strategy and put it into place. Then, write about it in your journal. This is where the real breakthrough moments come from. When you write about your experiences, you’ll be able to revisit them from a new perspective.

Journaling is important to the self-improvement process because it allows us to evaluate our progress and hold ourselves accountable. Think critically about your strategy — did it work well? How could it be improved? What would you do differently next time?

By journaling about your self-growth journey, you’ll be able to hone in on what strategies work best.

A personal example of journaling for self-improvement

One of my goals this year was to be more mindful through meditation. I’ve never been a big meditator. But I saw the benefits of it all around me, as friends and family members started to meditate more and reap the benefits.

I decided to use the above method to start working this goal into my journal.

1. What is my goal?

There are many ways to define your goals. SMART goals are one great way. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Resourceful and Timed.

“Meditate more” or “Be more mindful” isn’t very specific. It’s hard to measure, it might take a lifetime to achieve and it doesn’t point to any specific resources.

A better goal for me was: “Meditate for 15 minutes each day this month using a mindfulness exercise.”

2. What are my blockers? 

I started thinking about what has stopped me from achieving my goals in the past. Motivation is one. As I said, I’ve never been big on meditation – In the past, I’d often miss a session, then a week, and then I’d stop. This time, I wanted the habit to stick.

Time is another one. As a freelance writer, I sometimes work with very tight deadlines. Even if I wanted to meditate, it can feel like 15 minutes is a big chunk out of my day, especially if I’m at the end of a major project with a time crunch.

3. What are my strategies?

To overcome these blockers, I needed two strategies. First of all, I needed to make sure that I had the time necessary to achieve my goal of self-improvement.

Overhauling my whole work schedule for 15 minutes of meditation seemed like overkill. That would have to be another project. Instead, I needed a quick-fix; something I could do daily, right now. I decided to overlap my meditation with another daily activity: eating breakfast.

You don’t have to sit lotus-style in silence chanting “Ohmmmmmmm” to be more mindful.

As for my motivation, I decided that each day in my journal, I’d remind myself about the reasons why I wanted to be more mindful. Inner peace, mental resilience, calmness in the face of difficulty, these are all goals for self-improvement that I knew I could achieve through meditation.

By reminding myself about why I started, it would be easier to stay on track.

Over the next 30 days, I journaled about my experience. At first, trying to be mindful while eating wasn’t easy. I journaled about different things I could try to be mindful while eating and looked up ideas on the internet. I realized that sometimes I skip breakfast without even noticing, so I had to be sure to keep up my morning routine.

On days when I had trouble focusing or finding time, I’d write about it in my journal, and find new strategies or solutions to implement the next day. By the end of 30 days, I could already start feeling the benefits of meditating on a daily basis.

My journal helped me to track the progress I was making, note the difficulties I had, and reflect on my strategies to overcome them. While setting goals, defining blockers, and establishing strategies are all key parts, it was in my journal that everything came together.

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

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Wrapping up

There are a lot of different reasons to journal, but journaling for self-improvement can help you to achieve your goals. By using a journal, you can easily follow your progress and see how journaling for self-improvement has an effect on your mood.

Let us know in the comments below what some of your goals, blockers, and strategies are, and how journaling has helped you on your journey to self-improvement!

Christian Rigg Author

Academic researcher and writer with a passion for statistical analysis, neuropsychology and mental health.

The post 3 Steps to Journal for Self-Improvement (and Self-Growth) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

Studies have shown that happiness can be spread from one person to another. When you’re happy, the people around you are more likely to be happy too. And when your social circle is happier, they’ll help bring up your happiness in turn. This is called a positive feedback loop, and it benefits everybody.

In this article, we’ll look at the research on how happiness is spread, some examples of how happiness has made communities or families stronger and happier, and some techniques you can put into action to spread happiness to others around you.

How is happiness spread?

Happiness as a contagion — something that can be spread between people — hasn’t gotten a lot of research interest in the scientific community. However, the studies that have been done indicate that happiness can pass from one person to the next, moving through a community, office building or neighborhood.

One study by Fowler and Christakis (2008) tracked people in their community for over 20 years.

The results of the study? “People who are surrounded by many happy people … are more likely to become happy in the future.” And that’s not all.

Their research suggests that, rather than happy people tending to just group together, “clusters of happiness result from the spread of happiness and not just a tendency for people to associate with similar individuals.”

Your happiness is my happiness

So how exactly does being around happy people make you happy? Scientists are still answering that question, but there are probably a number of different ways.

We already know that laughter and smiling is contagious, and that the act of smiling can help make you feel happier. Our tendency to mimic the facial expressions and body language of those around us can have a powerful effect on our moods.

The authors of the 2008 study mentioned above hypothesize that a multitude of little moments of joy and happiness experienced with others has an effect on your own. And it seems like happiness is more contagious than despair — by about 30%.

One study of married couples shows that happiness can be transmitted between partners by helping them cope with stressors like losing a job or illness, and this study of athletes shows that athletes are happier when their teammates are happier.

Even online communities like Twitter demonstrate clustering of happy and unhappy groups.

Finally, if you’re like most people, you turn to your friends for help when you’re feeling crappy. You might seek out family members or coworkers for advice.

Happier people are more helpful in these kinds of situations, and more willing to put in the work necessary to bring your mood back up.

Why you should try to spread happiness

Spreading happiness can do different things at different levels. On a personal level, we’ve already seen above that happier individuals make great partners and helpful friends.

This study by Demir & Özdemir suggests that having a happier social circle means that your own psychological needs are more likely to be met.

Athletic teams that are happier tend to perform better on the field. Happier students do better in school. Happier individuals tend to be healthier and live longer lives.

As we’ve already mentioned, happiness gets spread in a positive feedback loop. When you spread happiness, you’re not only helping others, you’re helping yourself.

By spreading happiness, your family, friends and community will benefit from everything we’ve mentioned, and so will you. So let’s spread some happiness!

Simple tips on how to spread happiness

Now that you know all about the benefits of spreading happiness, it’s time to get to work! Here are 3 great ways to help spread happiness to your friends and family, coworkers, and even strangers.

1. Smile more!

The whole world smiles with you – so the saying goes. Is it true? This is one that you can try yourself.

The next time you go out, pay attention to how people look at you and interact with you as you move past one another. For the sake of the experiment, try not to smile or show any emotion when you make eye contact or approach one another. How many people are smiling?

Try it again another day, but this time, go out and smile at every opportunity. Again, pay attention to how people respond and whether they smile or not.

I can guarantee you that more people will smile back at you when you smile at them. And since we know that simply smiling can help boost your happiness, you can feel great knowing that you gave their well-being a boost.

2. Pay it forward

In more than one of the studies above, it was found that happiness was spread between people by providing support when they encountered difficult situations.

Last week, one of my coworkers was obviously feeling like crap. She wasn’t sick, and she was still getting their work done, but she was really quiet and withdrawn. I noticed this but wasn’t really sure what I could do at first. We’re not close friends, but we work together, and I could see she wasn’t happy.

I had finished up my work for the day and was contemplating going home early. But I looked at her workload and knew that she was looking at a long day. We’ve all been in that situation – where you want nothing more than to go home and crawl into bed.

I started going through her tasks and doing anything I could. There was only about an hour left before the end of the day, but I decided to get as much done as possible to ease her load.

At the end of the day, she came over to see me and thanked me. I wasn’t even sure if she’d noticed, but she told me she had, and that it had made her feel a lot better knowing people were looking out for her.

3. Cook a meal for others!

You may already be aware of the benefits that cooking or baking for others has on your happiness. According to this study from Oxford University, people who share meals more often report feeling happier and more satisfied.

The study also demonstrates that people seem to know this intuitively: more than 75% of the participants agreed that sharing a meal is a good way to bring people together.

But you probably didn’t need a study to tell you that. If you’re like me, then some of your happiest moments were probably with friends or family around a hot meal.

Home-cooked meals make us feel cared for and loved — two things that are known to have a big impact on our happiness. And healthy, quality food has been linked to happiness as well.

So get together your friends or loved ones, cook them something that will nourish the body and soul, and you’ll all reap the benefits.

To be happy, find happy people

So what does all this mean for your own happiness? If there’s one big takeaway from what we’ve learned, it’s that you’ll be happier if you are surrounded by happy people. That definitely doesn’t mean cutting “negative” or unhappy people out of your life.

Not at all. By spreading happiness to your friends, family and coworkers, you can help make everybody in your social circle happier, yourself included.

It means that building rewarding relationships and seeking out happier environments can make you a happier person. Try to keep that in mind the next time you’re in a social situation and meeting new people.

The more happy people you have in your life, the happier you’ll probably be yourself.

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

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Closing words

These are just three examples of the many, many ways to spread happiness in the world. Smiling at strangers, helping somebody in need, or preparing a hot meal are great ways to spread happiness, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg.

Try to think of other ways to spread happiness to your friends, family, coworkers and strangers, and take note of what kind of effect it has on them.

If there’s anything I missed, I’d love to know. Do you have a personal tip you would like to share? Let’s hear it in the comments below!

Christian Rigg Author

Academic researcher and writer with a passion for statistical analysis, neuropsychology and mental health.

The post 3 Ways to Spread Happiness to Others (And Why it’s so Important) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

Research seems to show that unhappiness – and happiness – is caused by patterns in our lives: patterns in how the things we do, which are called behavioral patterns, and patterns in the things we think, which are called cognitive patterns. Different behavioral and cognitive patterns lead to different emotional patterns, which are part of what determines how happy we feel from day to day.

The path to being happier can be long, and sometimes requires great changes in one’s life. In fact, being happy is something you need to cultivate every day, but adopting the right patterns in your life and then sticking to them. In this article, we’ll look at some of the common patterns that lead people to be unhappy, and what you can do about them.

We all feel down from time to time – and if it’s in response to a particular situation, that’s normal. However, many people feel unhappy much of the time, and that points to a bigger problem. So what are the main causes of unhappiness? Why is everyone so unhappy? And more importantly, what can you do if you often feel unhappy?

This article will explain everything.

Behavioral patterns that lead to unhappiness.

We all have good and bad habits; that’s part of being human. Nobody’s perfect, and that certainly shouldn’t be your goal.

Instead, it’s important to identify which habits or behavioral patterns in your life are contributing the most to your unhappiness, and then try to change them. There are lots of different behavioral patterns that can have a negative effect on your happiness, but here are some of the most common ones.

1. Staying indoors

There’s more than one good reason to leave the house. For example, did you know that spending time in nature is scientifically proven to increase happiness? Recognizing that fact has never been more important than today when so many of us spend more time indoors.

People who do spend more time in nature tend to report being generally happier, and studies show that spending time outdoors increases cognitive functioning, improves your immune system, and reduces stress and blood pressure. All things that help contribute to being happier.

By the way: Do you find it hard to be happy and in control of your life? It may not be your fault. To help you feel better, we’ve condensed the information of 100’s of articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet to help you be more in control.

Don’t Miss Out On Happiness

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2. Isolating yourself

There’s another good reason not to spend too much time at home. Humans are social beings; it’s one of the main ways we deal with stress.

And yet, only about half of Americans experience meaningful in-person interactions on a daily basis. In some parts of Europe, up to 40% of people have only one meaningful interaction with friends or family per month.

Social isolation leads to feelings of loneliness and boredom, which can both cause severe unhappiness. In fact, one article from the American Psychological Association linked social isolation with “adverse health consequences including depression, poor sleep quality, impaired executive function, accelerated cognitive decline, poor cardiovascular function and impaired immunity at every stage of life.”

3. Excessive drinking and drugs

What? No way. Alcohol is fun! Well – yes and no. Alcohol and drugs (including cannabis) can cause a person to be less inhibited and experience short-lived feelings of happiness. But in the long run, they both can negatively impact your happiness.

Alcoholism and drug dependency can lead to some seriously negative consequences: fatigue and decreased energy, feelings of guilt, difficulty concentrating and making decisions, feelings of pessimism, insomnia, irritability, loss of appetite, and physical pain.

It’s probably okay to have a glass or two of wine with dinner or a few beers with friends – but if the next day you find yourself feeling unhappy, stressed, or anxious, it may be time to reevaluate that behavior.

Everybody’s different, which means that your friends or family’s behavior may not be right for you. Alcohol and drugs have become deeply ingrained in our culture, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not contributing to your unhappiness.

4. Not sleeping enough and not sleeping regularly

There are so many ways that sleep is important for your happiness. Doctors recommend between 7 and 9 hours of sleep, and for good reason. When you don’t get enough sleep, your brain can’t regulate itself properly, and your emotions can start to go wild and take over. While the science may be complex, the evidence is clear: people who get adequate sleep tend to feel happier.

This effect of sleep on happiness was personally tested here on this blog as well!

5. Chronic inactivity, lack of exercise, and poor nutrition

Physical activity and nutrition are both fundamentally linked to happiness. In fact, one study in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine found that “People who were inactive … were more than twice as likely to be unhappy as those who remained active.”

And it’s not just a question of unhappy people being less happy – becoming physically active led participants to be happier.

That’s not surprising, given that physical activity has been linked to increased confidence and emotional stability, positive body image, improved self-control, decreased anxiety and depression, decreased feelings of hostility, and reduced abuse of harmful substances like cigarettes and alcohol.

Finally, when it comes to happiness, you are what you eat. One study found that, even after controlling for socioeconomic status, weight and physical activity level, children with poorer diets were consistently less happy.

And one German study found that healthy eating correlated with improved mood and happiness, the biggest effect caused by eating vegetables.

Cognitive patterns that lead to unhappiness

Just like our poor behavioral habits can detract from our happiness, so can poor cognitive patterns – that is, the way you think about yourself and the world around you. Luckily, this is something that you can learn to control. If you recognize the following patterns, you’ll know where to start.

1. Tending towards dissatisfaction

Chronic dissatisfaction can manifest in a couple of different ways. Perfectionism, or feeling like you ought to be better at things than you are, is one of them.

Especially when you’re already unhappy, it’s easy to feel like you’re failing at one or more things in life. But as Dr. John D. Kelly points out, “perfectionism is a byproduct of dysfunctional thinking”, like a preoccupation with insignificant details, focusing on negatives, and disproportionate thinking.

Others feel dissatisfied with aspects of their life – their job, their relationships, or their living or financial situation. There’s a difference between being driven and being chronically dissatisfied.

If you find that you tend to be more dissatisfied than satisfied with things in your life, chances are you’re stuck in a negative pattern of thinking. If your coworkers, partner, friends or parents seem to constantly let you down – you may have developed an inappropriate cognitive pattern.

2. Skewed affective forecasting

We’ve spoken about affective forecasting before – the ability to accurately predict how a situation’s outcome will make you feel in the future. All humans are pretty bad at it, but some people tend to overestimate negative impacts and underestimate positive ones. As a result, you may often feel like there’s nothing to look forward to.

Plus, like all habits, the longer you do it, the more deeply ingrained the behavior becomes. Once you fall into the pattern of negative affective forecasting, you’re more likely to start seeking out possible negative outcomes and ignoring the positive ones.

3. Focusing on negative past and future events

The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said:

If you are depressed, you are living in the past.

If you are anxious you are living in the future.

There’s some truth to that, but it may be a little more complex. One study found that anxiety is related to both remembering and imagining more negative events, while depression is related to remembering and imagining fewer positive events. Either way, the problem is one of a negative cognitive pattern – the tendency to either focus on negative events or to have trouble focusing on positive ones.

How to fix your unhappiness?

These kinds of negative cognitive and behavioral patterns are the main causes of unhappiness and dissatisfaction in people’s lives. The good news is that you can take control of the situation. Here’s how:

1. Identify your negative patterns

Admitting you have a problem is the first step. Okay, a little cliché, but it’s actually true. You’re going to first need to find out which of the above negative patterns or habits are contributing to your unhappiness.

And this list is by no means exhaustive – there may be some other pattern of behavior or thinking that’s affecting your happiness. That’s okay because this method works for all of them.

First, start keeping a journal. There are lots of different ways to keep a journal, and we’ve spoken about how to get started. The most important thing is to keep track of your day-to-day life and try to find patterns that can you to be unhappy. Then, there are two ways to go about identifying your habits: passively and actively.

Passive identification: How are you feeling now?

Passive identification involves evaluating your current thoughts and behaviors: do you have better days when you get more sleep? How about when you exercise? When you spend time outdoors? Are there certain activities that always cause you to be happier? Sadder? How do you normally react to (perceived) negative situations; how do you usually feel thinking about the future; how do you usually feel looking back on past events?

Active identification: Okay, now try this…

Active identification involves adding or removing thoughts or behaviors to see how they affect your happiness. Try sleeping eight hours every night; what do your journal entries look like? How about if you eat really well for two weeks? Try imagining positive future events three times per day – what effect does that have? Practice gratitude every day for a week – how do you feel at the end of it?

2. Change your negative patterns

Now that you’ve identified your negative behavioral and cognitive patterns, you need to take steps toward changing them. We know that forming new habits can be hard, but there are some excellent resources out there to help you.

One of our favorites is by James Clear, author of Atomic Habits; he’s written a guide on forming new habits. This works especially well for new behavioral habits.

As for cognitive ones, there are a number of different psychological techniques for changing the way you think. If you didn’t know that was possible, it definitely is! You can master your own thoughts, and change your negative cognitive patterns into positive ones.

One technique that’s successfully helped millions of people change their negative thinking patterns is called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Hey, that sounds right on the money! Yep. CBT is a self-therapy technique that helps you to identify negative thinking patterns and replace them with positive ones. Check out this useful list of 25 CBT techniques for improving your thought patterns.

3. Keep evaluating, keep improving, stay happy

If you can successfully find which negative behavioral and cognitive patterns are making you unhappy, and address them, you’ll be able to start feeling happier in less time than you may think.

But happiness is like a garden – it has to be tended. Otherwise, weeds can settle back in.

And the longer you let them grow, the harder they are to take up. So continue evaluating yourself for negative patterns, address them as you find them, and you’ll stay happy.

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Wrapping up

We’ve written dozens of helpful articles that teach you how to be happy. Here you’ll find amazing tips on how you can tend your garden of happiness. With that said, I hope you can learn from these causes of unhappiness to avoid their negative impact on your life.

What’s your biggest cause of unhappiness? What’s the reason why you’ve been so unhappy lately? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Christian Rigg Author

Academic researcher and writer with a passion for statistical analysis, neuropsychology and mental health.

The post 8 Major Causes of Unhappiness: Why Everyone is so Unhappy appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

Your happiness depends on a lot of things, like genetics and life experiences – but as much as 40% is in your control. The way you conceive of happiness can have a big impact on just how happy you are. If you go chasing after it, you may find it slips through your fingers. The expression “Happiness is a journey” is all about thinking about happiness the right way – and finding ways to enjoy all the steps.

There are a couple of different ways to interpret this expression, and each of them will teach you something important about happiness. In this article, we’ll look at all the ways happiness can be thought of as a journey, with examples and actual research to help you apply them to your own life.

Happiness as a goal in life

We often talk about happiness as a goal — something to be attained, like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The problem with this approach is that we forget to enjoy the present moment. There’s nothing wrong with setting goals for yourself, but if you think achieving a certain goal will finally bring you happiness, you may be in for a disappointment. One reason is that the predictions we make about how we’ll feel in the future aren’t very accurate.

I’ll be happy when …..

When I was studying psychology at university, one of our professors asked us at the beginning of the course to fill out a survey. Several of the questions had to do with what grade we thought we’d get, and how we’d feel if we got a better or worse grade. At the end of the year, after we received back our grades, we were asked to note our emotional response.

It turns out that almost all our predictions were incorrect. Those of us who got a better grade than we’d predicted at the beginning of the year didn’t feel as happy as we thought we would – and those of us who got a worse grade didn’t feel as bad as predicted!

The ability to accurately predict our future emotional states is called affective forecasting and it turns out that humans are pretty bad at it. We make consistently bad predictions about how we’ll feel:

• When a relationship ends
• When we do well in sports
• When we get a good grade
• When we graduate from college
• When we get a promotion
• Just about anything else

There are a couple of different reasons why we’re so bad at this, but two of the main ones are because we usually overestimate how intensely we’ll feel an emotion and for how long.

Another important reason we’re bad at predicting our emotions is that we usually fail to take into account the complexity of future events. You might think you’ll be happy when you get a promotion – but you may find yourself over-worked, with too much responsibility and not enough time.

Affective forecasting in science

Finally, this study found that the more people equate goal-achievement with happiness, the more they’re likely to be miserable when they fail to achieve that goal. If there’s a lesson to be learned from poor affective forecasting, it’s that you shouldn’t count on specific events to make you happy.

A little happiness every day vs a lot of happiness at once?

Another reason why it’s not great to put all your happiness eggs in one basket is that your happiness depends more on the frequency of happy events, and not the intensity.

In other words, it’s better to have lots of little happy moments than one or two bigs ones. Not only this, but research has shown that happiness from individual events doesn’t actually last that long. And it turns out that one of the best ways to prolong feelings of happiness following an event is to relive what it is that made you happy.

These three studies together tell us something very important about happiness: you should try to maximize the number of small, happy events in your life as much as you can.

Why is happiness a journey and not a destination? Because whatever you think is the destination, it probably won’t make you as happy as you’d like, and you may end up miserable if you don’t get there. It’s better to enjoy little events along the way.

Creating your own happiness

I came across this cute and clever meme today in the gym. Maybe you’ve seen it.

It got me to thinking that one of the reasons why lots of people are unhappy is because they go out looking for happiness, rather than cultivating it in their lives. In a previous article, we explained how happiness is an inside job – it’s something that you can build up from the inside, without having to resort to external sources.

One overview of the paradoxes inherent in seeking happiness came to this conclusion:

Happiness is pursued indirectly as the by-product of meaningful activities and relationships.

While the reasons are manifold (and a bit complex), it looks like “searching for it everywhere” is just about the worst way to go about it. Maddeningly, this study found that valuing happiness as an end goal or destination may “lead people to be less happy just when happiness is within reach.” Finally, when we’re focused on happiness as a destination, we end up feeling like we have less time to enjoy it. So if happiness isn’t a destination we can find and get to, how do we create it?

Well, I already mentioned one article, but the Learn To Be Happy Blog is full of advice based on real-world examples and research on how to cultivate happiness in your day to day life. Some examples include journaling for self-improvement, spreading happiness to others, and (of course!) being physically active. There are lots of ways to create happiness in your life, and studies have shown it’s a lot more effective than looking for it.

Why is happiness a journey and not a destination? Because you may never find the destination, in which case you’ve got a long, long journey ahead of you. So enjoy it! When you get happiness from the journey, you can stop looking for it elsewhere.

Happiness on the horizon

I love facts. Did you know that we share 50% of our DNA with lettuce? Or that a piece of paper folded 42 times would reach the moon? (Turns out you can’t fold a piece of paper more than 8 times. Sorry NASA).

Well, here’s another one of my favorites: people are typically happier planning vacations than after going on them.

In fact, the anticipation of an event is often more enjoyable than the event itself, and we’re happier looking forward to it than we are remembering it. Why is that? Well, it’s due in part to what we talked about in the first part of this article, affective forecasting. We overestimate how much a vacation or some other event will make us happy. But we love imagining it, planning it and getting excited about it!

Active anticipation vs happiness

This is called active anticipation and it’s a fantastic way to enjoy the happiness journey. There are lots of ways to practice active anticipation of an event – you can journal about it, watch movies or read books in a similar vein, or do research on things to do. The important thing is to enjoy the process as much as you can.

This also means you’ll be happier if you always have something good on the horizon, whether it’s a trip, a play, a dinner with friends, or just a nice meal at the end of the week.

If that seems contradictory to the first two interpretations of Happiness as a journey, remember to focus on active anticipation — take as much pleasure as you can in planning the details.

Enjoying the journey AND the destination

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy yourself at the party! But it does mean that you should try to enjoy planning it too. Don’t attach your happiness to the upcoming event. You can look forward to the event without saying to yourself, “I’ll finally be happy when I go on vacation”, or “I’ll finally be happy when I see my friends!”

The point is to enjoy all of it – the journey there and the destination.

Why is happiness a journey and not a destination? Because the journey can be a lot more fun than the destination itself, and if you take the time to really enjoy each step along the way, you’ll spend more time being happy. Having something to look forward to helps you be happier in the present, which means that the journey is never really over. When you reach one destination, just keep on trekking!

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Closing words

We’ve seen a number of different ways that happiness is best thought of as a journey and not a destination. It turns out that people are happiest when they have something to look forward to, when they enjoy the steps that take them there, and when they don’t attach too much importance to individual events.

On the flip side, focusing on happiness as a destination to be found or reached, putting all your hopes on big life events, and aiming for one or two really happy moments rather than a series of little ones, are all things that can make you less happy. It turns out the cliché is true: happiness really is a journey, one to be enjoyed to the fullest.

Now I’m looking forward to hearing from you! Have you experienced things similar to what I discussed in this article? Did I miss something? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

Christian Rigg Author

Academic researcher and writer with a passion for statistical analysis, neuropsychology and mental health.

The post Why Happiness Is A Journey And Not A Destination appeared first on Tracking Happiness.