By David Joel Miller, MS, Licensed Therapist & Licensed Counselor.

Don’t do these things if you want to be happy.

Some things add to your happiness, and others detract from it. While it may take some time to build up positive things in your life make sure you are not of reducing that happiness by any of these negative behaviors.

Learn from your mistakes, if you fall down, get back up. Try these tips for more happiness.

Don’t spend time thinking about the pain of the past.

The more time you spend thinking about the pain of the past, turning it over and over in your mind, the more impediments you create to be happy.  Make a strong effort to stop thinking about the past pain and focus instead on the opportunities in the present.  Learn the lessons from your life’s past events, but don’t continue to relive those events.

Don’t focus on what is missing.

Happiness comes from enjoying the things you have not focusing on the things that are missing.  Learn to be grateful for what you do have rather than focusing on the things that are absent.

Don’t avoid spending time alone.

Frantically seeking company rather than being willing to spend time alone will not increase your happiness.  Develop the skills of enjoying the time you have with yourself.  Happiness comes from achieving a balance between time spent with others and time spent alone.

Don’t stop growing.

Make your life a work in progress rather than a finished product.  Continuing to grow in life continues to enlarge your happiness.

Don’t be so hard on yourself.

Being hard on yourself or others is not a way to motivate someone to do better.  Learn to lighten up and accept that humans are fallible creatures.  People who can accept their mistakes have a much happier life.

Don’t forget why you’re doing things.

Some things we do because they’re important in part because we choose to do them.  If you find you are just doing things out of habit, they are unlikely to be making you happy.

Don’t abuse your body.

Take good care of your body.  Pushing your body too hard results in an unhappy life. You only get one body in this life. Sometimes if your body gets damaged a good doctor can repair it, but a repaired vehicle is never as good as when it was new.

Don’t believe that things can make you happy.

Things come and go in your life.  Having nice things means you can enjoy them for a while.  But over the long-term things wear out and need to be fixed.  It’s not the things that will make you happy it is what you can do with them that leads to a happy life.

Don’t compare yourself to others.

Constantly comparing yourself to others is a sure way to reduce your happiness.  There’ll always be people who have more than you.  It is also likely there will be people who have a lot less.  Constantly comparing ourselves to others interferes with your ability to enjoy who you are.

Don’t ruminate about what is wrong.

Dwelling on what’s wrong doesn’t result in fixing it.  Focus on what needs doing and what you can do.  No one hits a hundred percent.  Recognize that to accomplish anything you must do a lot of things.  Not everything you try it will be perfect.  If you stay focused on the mistakes, you don’t leave room for doing the new things that could make you happy.

Don’t fear change.

Change is an inevitable part of life. Fearing and trying to avoid change keeps you stuck in the past. To maximize your happiness embrace change. Look at the process of change is your opportunity to experience new things. Fearing change keeps you stuck where you are.

Don’t blame others.

The matter what others may or may not have done, you are responsible for your happiness. If you are unhappy, begin by working on yourself. The easiest thing to change is your attitude, the way you view life. The second thing you can change is your actions. Don’t like where your life is? Begin by taking small steps and these will add up to large changes.

Don’t lose your curiosity.

Curiosity keeps life fun and exciting. Little children can become happy over the littlest things. When you see each day, and everything in it as new, life takes on more meaning. Practice using your childlike mind and seek each day to learn something new.

Don’t put things off until tomorrow.

Don’t delay; life is lived in today. Make today the happiest day possible. While you may plan for tomorrow everything you will do will be done today. Make sure you don’t wait to do anything until the opportunity has passed.

Don’t worry about things that are out of your control.

It’s easy to worry about things in other people’s houses and other places. Lots of people today are caught up in worrying about what’s going on in Washington DC or, in their state’s capital. What you are likely to discover is the things that happen in your house are for far more likely to affect your happiness than things in far-off places. Look for things over which you have control and put your focus there.

Don’t forget your family and friends.

Happy people develop positive support systems. Try to improve relationships with your family where possible. Invest time in your friendships. If your friendships don’t bring you positive results, consider investing some of today into creating new and better friendships. Having positive friends will make you happy

Don’t think that being alone means being lonely.

Lonely people find that they are lonely whether they are by themselves or in a crowd. Learn to be your best friend, enjoy your times of solitude. Being happy when you’re by yourself makes you even happier when you are with other positive people. People who were frantically looking for someone else to make them happy often end up disappointed. If you like you there will always be good company in your life.

Staying connected with David Joel Miller

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now!

My newest book is now available. It was my opportunity to try on a new genre. I’ve been working on this book for several years, but now seem like the right time to publish it.

Story Bureau.

Story Bureau is a thrilling Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic adventure in the Surviving the Apocalypse series.

Baldwin struggles to survive life in a post-apocalyptic world where the government controls everything.

As society collapses and his family gets plunged into poverty, Baldwin takes a job in the capital city, working for a government agency called the Story Bureau. He discovers the Story Bureau is not a benign news outlet but a sinister government plot to manipulate society.

Bumps on the Road of Life. Whether you struggle with anxiety, depression, low motivation, or addiction, you can recover. Bumps on the Road of Life is the story of how people get off track and how to get your life out of the ditch.

Dark Family Secrets: Doris wants to get her life back, but small-town prejudice could shatter her dreams.

Casino Robbery Arthur Mitchell escapes the trauma of watching his girlfriend die. But the killers know he’s a witness and want him dead.

Planned Accidents  The second Arthur Mitchell and Plutus mystery.

Letters from the Dead: The third in the Arthur Mitchell mystery series.

What would you do if you found a letter to a detective describing a crime and you knew the writer and detective were dead, and you could be next?

Sasquatch. Three things about us, you should know. One, we have seen the past. Two, we’re trapped there. Three, I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to our own time.

For these and my upcoming books; please visit my Author Page – David Joel Miller

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