Dr. Dan Baker's 12-Point Plan for Happiness

1. Love: Love is the wellspring of happiness; renewable and everlasting. Do one thing you love everyday. Happy people are forgiving and don’t hold grudges.

2. Optimism: Optimism provides power over painful events. Don’t take it personally, life is a series of events and when those events are disruptive, see them as temporary. Don’t let them ruin your life.

3. Courage: Living with integrity. You can’t rise above fear without courage because fear is hardwired into your neural circuitry.

4. Sense of Freedom: Freedom is choice. Choice makes us human. You always have choice.

5. Proactive: Happy people participate in their own destinies and forge their own happiness. They don’t wait for events or other people to make them happy.

6. Security: Happy people know that nothing - over time – lasts so they don’t measure security with a calendar or a calculator. They simply like who they are.

7. Health: Happiness and health are interdependent.

8. Spirituality: Happy people aren’t afraid to go beyond the boundaries of their own life. They are not concerned about dying; they are concerned about not living. They believe in something bigger than themselves.

9. Altruism: Happy people know how good it feels to be altruistic, to give something back. It connects you to other people, gives you purpose and gets you outside of yourself.

10. Perspective: Happy people see shades of grey. They don’t lose sight of the big picture. They see the world as a place of abundance.

11. Humour: Humour is a shift of perception that gives people the guts to go on when life looks its worst. Humour lifts suffering off the heart. When you laugh, you change at least 12 chemicals in your brain.

12. Purpose: Happy people know why they’re here on earth. They know why they get out of bed in the morning. They’re doing the things they were meant to do. If they died today, they would be satisfied with their lives.

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