LIVING AN OPTIMISTIC AND HAPPY LIFE

By Winfred Mugabirwe JonesAn Intern student at Ugafin LTDP O Box 26191,KampalaTel:+256774997285Email:mwinfredjones@gmail.com

Living An optimistic and Happy Life Monday, November 04, 2013

Learn how to be happy with yourself by mastering the secret of happiness.

• Are you often less than fully happy with your life? Or with yourself? Do you wonder what it would take to become happier? Is there a single true secret of happiness?

Living An optimistic and Happy Life

There are a number of important factors in your happiness Your happiness with life and your happiness with yourself. Here are some of the most important choices you can make to live a happier - or less happy - life.• The single most important key to your

happiness - perhaps THE secret of happiness - is listed last.

Living An optimistic and Happy Life

She looks happy

1. Have a Purpose If a man does not know what port he is steering for,

no wind is favorable to him. This implies that he or she ought to bring the meaning of life, depending on how he or she ascribes it to be. Logically to me life is being alive • Your life doesn't have a purpose until you choose

your life purpose. So make that choice, and choose well. There is a very high correlation between lives of high purpose and joyful lives. There is also a high correlation between lives without purpose and unhappy lives. Create purpose in your life not as a moral dictum, but as a key element of a happy life.

2. Take Action - Be Bold Whatever you can do or dream you can, Begin it on. Boldness has

genius, power and magic in it, Begin it now. You ought to have Faith too; Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

A life lived in fear is a life half lived and Life isn't about finding yourself but it’s about is creating yourself. (George Bernard Shaw) for example my Dad, who graduated with a very nice degree in forestry but ended up in another filed of job not even related to what he studied, he keeps lecturing me about not giving up my dreams even when your goals are starting to change or moving in another direction.

But once you know where you are going, get started. A life of action is almost always happier than a life of procrastination and inaction. Even if you are unsure about what to do next, do the best you can. Make some progress every day, and celebrate even your smallest accomplishments.

HE’S BOLD

3. Honor Yourself Love Yourself as You Are,*to thine own self be true.* - William

Shakespeare Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. For example I usually have get comparison issues with my mum, at times with her or other people but I usually console her to be fine and not worry because* That’s them and I am me, and I promise to even be better in God’s timing

Honor, self respect, and self love are crucial to your happiness. Don't confuse these essential attributes with pride - in the biblical sense of pride. You have to respect and love yourself in order to stand any chance for a happy life. You are perfect exactly as you are - whatever anyone else may say about you. If you sometimes choose to make changes in how you live, great. But you never have to change anything in order to be a perfect person - a perfect creation.

WE LOVE OURSELVES

4. Forgive Others • Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does

enlarge the future.(got that during in some night prayers I attended in Bukalago).Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else don’t forget that you are the one who is getting burnt. Forgiveness is the key to happiness. Holding on to resentments, anger, and hatred only hurts yourself - and robs your life of its joy and happiness. For your own sake - for the sake of your happiness - forgive everyone for everything that they have ever done - or failed to do - that caused you pain or upset. It is sometimes very hard to forgive, but total unconditional forgiveness is one of the great keys to your own happiness.

5. Forgive Yourself Regret is an appalling waste of energy, you can't build

on it .What's done is done, and let by goons be by goons and start Living with intention...Choose with no regrets...(Princess Diaries movie).Put in mind that no one is so perfect and whoever points a finger at you, three of his fingers are point back at him(Father Safari on Sunday mass)

Always do your best - your very best - every time. But after it is over, let it be done - whatever the outcome. Learn lessons from your failures, but never label yourself as a failure. Forgive yourself for everything you have ever done - or failed to do - that didn't work out the way you intended.

6. Have Gratitude for All of Life Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have

into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.(harry Potter movies)

We also have the choice of celebrating life - all of life. We can be profoundly grateful for everything we have. However little we have, it is so much more than nothing. Our very existence is a daily miracle which deserves constant gratitude. Make the choice to be constantly grateful for all of life, not because you are supposed to be grateful, but because you will live a much happier life if you have a grateful attitude.

7. Be of Service to Others Life's most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you

doing for others?"(Martin Luther King, Jr.)Implying what is your purpose to the community you live in??? If you want others to be happy, practice compassion and what you feel can change your community (family) to good, better and best. The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own. - Lao Tzu When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness(courtesy of my parents doing good to people) What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us;(mbwenushi abatu bakwijukire hali ki?? What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.

Of all the keys to happiness, Service to Others is the big one

- perhaps THE secret of happiness. Without purpose we have no reason to live. Without taking action on that purpose we are impotent. What is the characteristic of a life purpose that creates satisfaction with life and genuine lasting happiness? - Being of Service to others.

NOTE:

• There are many ways to be of service - and they are all wonderful as long as they are sincere. Being of service can be raising children with love, caring for an ill relative, volunteering with the Red Cross, or it can be developing a new pharmaceutical or even selling a product that you truly believe will greatly help people. Being of service is the attitude rather than the action. One could be a physician for the money, or one could dig graves as a service to others. Note that being of service is completely different from attempting to please everyone - which is foolish and a path to great unhappiness.

THUS

Being of service allows us to live a larger life, to live beyond ourselves, to leave a lasting legacy. Consider including service as a key element of your statement of life purpose, and taking purpose. You will be happier for it. Y

THANK YOU