5 Ways Happy People Become Even Happier

From time to time, I meet someone who claim to already be happy. However, they are still curious to learn what, if anything they can learn to become even happier. To these people, I provide the following happiness advice:

1. Don’t always try to be 10 out 10 happy

Happiness is attainable by everyone, and most people will experience high levels of it at least occasionally. However, the true happiness test lies in how frequently and for how long we can maintain these higher positive levels, with the happiest individuals being those who not only experience peaks of happiness more often but are also able to sustain them for longer periods of time.

However, a common mistake people make is believing that if they can’t constantly be at a 10 out of 10 level of happiness, which is virtually impossible to achieve and maintain in practice, then it’s not even worth trying. This mindset can lead individuals to simply accept unhappiness, which can be quite demoralizing.

So, instead of striving to be perfectly 10 out of 10 happy all the time, we can aim for a more realistic goal of 7 or 8 out of 10 happiness most of the time. This level is attainable and can be maintained in a sustainable way. It may not always be a state of euphoria or intense desire, but rather a feeling of contentment and satisfaction, which is the true essence of happiness.

2. You Are Happy Today, But What About Tomorrow?

Is your happiness guaranteed and bulletproof? After all, some of the happiest people alive are happy regardless of their circumstances. This means that our lives can change dramatically for better or worse overnight, so ideally we need to be ready for whatever may come. In practice, we want to learn how to be happy regardless of who we are, where we are from, and what our life circumstances are. 

As such, many happy people admit that they don’t feel 100% secure about tomorrow and are unsure about what they would need to do to maintain their high level of happiness if their circumstances were to change. So yes, they are happy right now because things are going their way, but what about tomorrow?

3. Feeling Happy And Thinking “I’m Happy” Are Two Different Things

Once, a woman attending a happiness masterclass surprised everyone by proclaiming she was happy. However, it was clear from the way she spoke, behaved, and her overall body language that she wasn’t as happy as she claimed to be.

This is because happiness is an emotion and it isn’t a statement that we can simply say without needing to back it up. So yes, people can say almost anything, such as “I’m happy,” “I’m rich,” or “I’m the smartest person alive.” But does this actually make it so just because they said so? Not necessarily.

Ultimately, happiness needs to be felt internally and this feeling has to stay with us over time. If we claim to be happy, we have to be certain that this is truly how we feel most of the time.

4. Being Happy In Any Environment

Similarly, I find that most happy people are so because they are situated in a happiness-conducive environment, such as favorable life circumstances, surrounded by content individuals, or attending a happiness seminar, which means that they are influenced by happiness and have surroundings that promote positive thoughts. However:

• How would they feel if they were no longer in that secure, social, and joyful environment?
• What if they were no longer influenced positively?
• How did most people feel during the COVID-19 outbreak?

This is the real test I would ask people to ponder to understand whether they are genuinely happy or merely experiencing temporary happiness (i.e., fleeting happiness).

5. Happiness as a Conscious Competence

Lastly, according to Noel Burch’s theory of conscious competence, there are four ways people can claim proficiency in their skills and knowledge:

1. Unconscious incompetence
2. Conscious incompetence
3. Unconscious competence
4. Conscious competence

Naturally, people who claim to be happy are most likely to have the third type, unconscious competence. This means they are happy, but they don’t fully understand why. They may have a good guess as to why they are happy, but if something were to happen and they lose that reason for happiness, they may struggle to find it again.

It’s important to remember the law of impermanence, which states that everything changes and eventually ceases to be. Therefore, we can’t assume that our current happiness will last forever like a fairy tale ending with “they lived happily ever after.”

Instead of holding onto fleeting circumstances, we should strive to develop conscious competence around happiness. This involves understanding what happiness truly is, why we experience it, and how to maintain it in the face of adversity.

Conscious competence around happiness is the ultimate form of happiness that I recommend cultivating. At Optimal Happiness, we teach people how to be happy today and forever, regardless of their background or current life circumstances.

So, if you’re seeking to gain more conscious competence in the area of happiness, you’ve come to the right place. Contact us, and we will show you what it really takes to achieve the level of happiness you desire.