If you google ‘how to be happy,’ you’ll find 165 million results. That’s 165 million opinions. 165 million ideas to try. 165 million things that you can do right now to try to become a happier person.
You’ll read advice like you should exercise at least 7 minutes a day (a good thing — I’m not sure I could do more than that), get more sleep, go for a walk. Volunteer, smile, practice gratitude, pray.
All good advice.
All things we should try to do. But what if we could boil all of the advice down to just three things? I happened to come across an article that said that if we want to be happy, we need 3 ingredients:
1. Something to do
2. Someone to love
3. Something to look forward to
After a few minutes of thought, I came up with my 3 things:
- I’m halfway done writing the next Blake Jordan thriller and working hard to finish it this month.
- I’ve loved being able to spend more time with my boys during the summer break.
- My family and I will be spending the weekend with friends, an annual 4th of July tradition.
When I first read about the three ingredients to happiness earlier this week, I thought about telling them to you so you could make sure you had all three in your life. But then I realized that most of us probably already do have all three — we just haven’t given them much thought or realized that we’ve been blessed with having these ingredients already…
I can’t say I love writing all of the time. Blog posts are hard. Writing a novel is really hard. But I love finishing a project and accomplishing a goal that many, MANY writers try but often never complete.
I can’t say I love being a parent all of the time. I could do without the temper tantrums and the endless requests for apple juice. But I love having my boys in my life and the gift of being their dad.
I can’t say I love having plans every single weekend. As a writer, I’d prefer to just stay holed up in my home office all weekend, writing. But I love having friends that want to spend time with me.
Now it’s your turn. What are your 3 things?
- Something to do:
- Someone to love:
- Something to look forward to: