Much is written and said about how to be happy. Practice your faith. Spend time with people who care about you. Get a dog. Count your blessings. Help somebody. Cultivate a hobby. Laugh more.
Good ideas, all. But they may not work for you. The most reliable way to increase your happiness is to be less miserable: remove something from your life that makes you unhappy.
Here are some candidates:
12 Reliable Ways to Be Miserable
- Live for praise and gratitude.
- Commute a long way to work by automobile.
- Expect people to change.
- Don’t get really, really good at some little thing.
- Isolate yourself from others.
- Spread yourself a mile wide and an inch deep (aka “crazy busy”).
- Be full of regret.
- Stay in a toxic relationship
- Don’t sleep enough.
- Live in the past, or the future.
- Procrastinate on the important things.
- Find a job you don’t enjoy and stick with it (bonus: abusive boss)
Life gives you your portion of misery regardless of what you do. Eliminating additional, self-inflicted misery is the simplest way to be happier.
