How to be happy in life? It’s been said that happiness doesn’t fall from the sky and that it has to be learned. And that’s true. But what are the right things to do? What’s the right thing to do? Where do you start? Here are 20 secrets you can apply right now to boost your happiness and rapidly transform your life!

1 – Make the decision to be happy in life

Happiness is above all a decision. Because it doesn’t just fall from the sky. In fact, you’re not born happy or unhappy.

Of course, some people seem to be less fortunate than others. And yet, that doesn’t mean anything, because sometimes we have all the reasons in the world to be happy and we’re not.

And that’s normal.

In fact, even if we have everything we need to be happy, it’s normal not to feel happy all the time.

Why not? Because we haven’t decided to be happy.

It’s a secret we’ve always kept from ourselves: happiness is a decision.

It’s very simple. It’s an intention we make every morning when we wake up: “Today is an ideal day to be happy, happy.”

That’s why I invite you to write this sentence down on a piece of paper and put it on your bedside table or bathroom mirror.

2 – Take stock of your present

To be happy in life, it’s important to take stock of our present: what do I like and dislike?

Because, all too often, we don’t really know what’s going on in our daily lives. We’re not sure why we don’t feel good.

Sometimes, it’s also because we don’t want to know, we want to hide from the truth.

Yet without awareness, there can be no change.

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to take stock:

What do I like in my life and what don’t I like?
And what do I want to keep and what don’t I want to keep?
Take stock in a spirit of kindness. Don’t reject, just become aware.

3 – Making peace with your past

To be happy in life, it’s essential to make peace with your past.

It’s a matter of not holding on to old stories that prevent us from approaching the day-to-day and the future with confidence and serenity.

In other words, make peace with what’s eating away at you. Accept that what happened happened, and that you can’t change it.

Now you’re left with two choices: you can continue to live in the past and let the years you still have to live slip away, or you can leave the past behind and open yourself up to the present and the future, to their promises of joy, happiness and serenity.

In fact, the secret to happiness in life is to keep moving forward!

4 – Develop your self-confidence to be happy in life

Self-confidence isn’t something you’re born with. In fact, you’re not born with or without self-confidence.

In fact, you have to work at it, building it up day after day.

Here again, it’s a well-kept secret.

Indeed, many of us tell ourselves that we lack self-confidence as if it were a curse we could do nothing about.

Well, the good news is that it’s a lie (laughs).

So, how do you develop your self-confidence?

By changing the way you look at fear.

Because it’s normal to be afraid of doing something you don’t know how to do, or of doing something for the first time.

It’s normal to be afraid of changing jobs, speaking in front of an audience or going to a yoga class for the first time.

But fear can be overcome. Step by step.

That’s why, to develop your self-confidence and be happy in life, learn to encourage and reassure yourself when you’re scared.

And find solutions to overcome your fears.

For example, if you’re afraid of changing jobs, you can ask for coaching; if you’re afraid of public speaking, you can practice and ask professionals for advice; and if you’re afraid of going to a yoga class, you can ask a friend to accompany you for the first class.

In fact, remember that people who are confident in themselves are people who have decided to take the plunge despite their fear.

5 – Learn to love yourself

Loving yourself works miracles in life. Indeed, when we love ourselves, we no longer seek to take love from others, but to give it.

In fact, we’re no longer in the business of pleasing, of satisfying, we’re in the business of offering.

In this way, we are free to be ourselves, at peace with who we are and who others are.

There’s no more competition, no more pretense. We are in authenticity and inner peace.

That’s why learning to love yourself is essential for happiness in life.

So, how do you learn?

To do so, I invite you to set up a ritual. Every morning, look at yourself in the mirror and repeat to yourself 10 times, 50 times if necessary: “I love and accept myself as I am.”

Look into your eyes. Embrace your vulnerability, embrace your fears.

You have the right and you deserve to love yourself like every other person on Earth.

6 – Sorting out your daily routine

We don’t always realize it, but to be happy in life, it’s essential to take the right actions.

And yet, on a day-to-day basis, we have a whole raft of bad habits. In other words, we perform actions that tire and stress us out, out of pure automatism.

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to clean up your daily routine.

What are you doing? How do you feel when you do these things?

In concrete terms, I invite you to make a list of all the things you do in a week. Then give each one a score out of 5.

Then take note of all the activities that have a score of 4 or 5, and make a point of doing them more often.

For all other activities, find ways of stopping them altogether, delegating them or doing them in a happier way.

In fact, realize that everything you do should be aimed at making you happy.

If what you’re doing doesn’t make you happy, stop doing it!

Indeed, it’s essential not to adapt to what doesn’t make us happy. That’s not what we’re here for.

7 – Sort out your home to be happy in life

We don’t always make the connection, but happiness also starts at home.

Being happy at home means having a place where you can recharge your batteries. It’s essential!

Yet we don’t always take care of our homes. In fact, we tend to clutter it up.

Because we don’t always buy things we like, but things we find useful.

What’s more, the cupboards in our homes are full of things we keep “just in case”.

But all this clutter clutters our minds. In fact, it’s hard to feel any joie de vivre or inner peace when everything in our home is overflowing.

In other words, to be happy in life, it’s essential to sort things out at home.

Start with easy-to-sort items like clothes or kitchen utensils.

For each object, answer this question: “Do I like this object, does it bring me joy?”

If yes, keep it. If not, give it away or throw it away.

8 – Sort out your relationships to be happy in life

We need human contact to be happy in life. But not just any human contact.

We need positive, pleasant, caring contacts.

But, if we’re totally honest, we know that we also have negative, unpleasant, even toxic contacts.

And we don’t know what to do about it?

It’s all about sorting things out. Dare to sort it out!

In fact, let’s understand that we are the sum of the 5 people we come into contact with most.

In other words, if you’re used to being around positive, happy and caring people, you’ll vibrate the same way.

But if you spend your time with negative, unkind people, you’ll vibrate the same way.

In fact, the choice is yours.

Who do you want to be? What do you want to embody in this life?

So sort it out and go for people whose qualities you appreciate.

9 – Manage your time better

Lack of time is a real scourge. Indeed, when we listen to each other talk, we hear this constantly: “I don’t have time”.

But that’s terrible, because to be happy in life, we need time!

In fact, our time is our one and only asset on Earth.

In fact, every day, you receive the gift of 24 hours. Just like every other person on Earth.

And your only objective with this time is to be happy.

Yet, on a day-to-day basis, we don’t take this approach. Instead, we tend to do things because we think we have to.

In other words, we don’t ask ourselves: “Does what I’m doing make me happy?

But that’s one of the secrets to happiness in life.

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to change the way you look at your time. To do this, every morning, consciously receive these 24 hours and ask yourself how you can use them to be happy.

10 – Taking care of yourself

When was the last time you took care of yourself? Took some time for yourself?

Chances are, you’re not used to it. After all, there’s so much to do, so many people to take care of, that the very idea of taking time for yourself doesn’t always occur to you.

And yet, taking care of yourself is essential to your happiness.

In fact, taking care of yourself is about recharging your batteries. It’s about regaining your energy, your joie de vivre and your inner calm.

Because if you don’t take care of yourself, chances are you’ll be stressed, on edge and even irritable.

It’s even possible that those around you will point this out to you, hurting you all the more because you feel you’re doing so much for others.

In fact, understand that other people don’t need you to do things for them or in their place so much as they need you to be a pleasant, smiling, energetic person.

Remember, we need positive, dynamic people around us.

Be that person for others.

In other words, take care of yourself!

To do this, I wholeheartedly invite you to start by giving yourself at least 20 minutes twice a week just for you!

11 – Have a goal to be happy in life

To be happy in life, it’s essential to have a goal. Because it means having a direction, a destination.

A goal enables us to give meaning to what we do today. It helps us to take a more positive and motivated look at our daily lives.

Because, all too often, our daily lives lack meaning. We do things, but we can’t answer the question: “Why do you do what you do?”

We don’t know.

But when we have a goal, we know why we take certain actions, and that both calms and motivates us.

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to set yourself a goal. But not just any goal.

Indeed, all too often, when we talk about goals we tend to answer this question: “What should I do?”

If you think in terms of “I must”, then chances are you’ll give up on your goal along the way. Not because you’re not a motivated person, but because your goal isn’t important enough to you.

That’s why, to set yourself a goal, I invite you to answer this question: “What do I want?” or “What do I dream of?”

Because a goal should only serve one purpose: to make you happier.

12 – Find your passion to be happy in life

Having a passion means inviting joie de vivre into your daily life. It means allowing ourselves to have the fun we had as children. It’s about bringing magic and wonder into our lives.

Unfortunately, we’ve learned to stop having fun. In fact, as early as elementary school, we were told, “Now we stop playing, we’re getting serious.”

That’s why today we’re bored with our lives. Even in our entertainment. We zap in front of the TV, we bend our heads over social networks without experiencing any joie de vivre…

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to find your passion or passions.

What makes you happy? What have you been wanting to try out for a while now?

If you don’t know, that’s normal. It’s been a long time since you allowed yourself to have fun.

So go and ask the child you used to be.

What did you like to do as a child?

Go from there. Run some tests!

Because that’s what being happy in life is all about: having fun!

13 – Be positive

We’ve learned to see the negative in everything and everyone. Even in ourselves. Yes, we’ve learned to focus on our flaws, weaknesses and failures.

Yet we feel that all this negativity is suffocating us more and more every day.

So we reassure ourselves that seeing things in a negative light is one way to avoid disappointment in life.

Above all, it’s a way of not being happy in life!

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to relearn how to see the positive. Because, yes, as a child, you knew how to see the positive. Your eyes sparkled with joy. Sometimes you cried, but it never lasted long, because all it took was a word or a new situation to make you smile again.

Become that positive person again.

To do so, I invite you to repeat this question to yourself ALL THE TIME: “What if everything went well?”

Stop preparing yourself for the negative, stop seeing only the negative. Expect the best!

14 – Cultivate gratitude to be happy in life

To be happy in life, there’s nothing more powerful than the practice of gratitude. Indeed, gratitude is a magnet for happiness.

To do this, we need to understand that we attract to ourselves what we vibrate.

In other words, if I vibrate with fear and negativity, I’ll attract situations in which I feel fear and negativity.

But if I’m vibrating gratitude, then I’m going to attract situations in which I feel gratitude.

This is something you can test today. Go out into the street and brood over angry thoughts. Before you know it, you’ll feel like you’re surrounded by angry people.

Then replace your thoughts of anger with thoughts of joy and love. You’ll soon feel that you’re surrounded by more pleasant, smiling people.

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to cultivate gratitude EVERY DAY.

To do this, write down in a notebook, every morning or evening, 3 things for which you feel grateful to be alive.

15 – Cultivating benevolence

As we’ve just seen, we attract to ourselves what we vibrate. And this also works in our relationships.

In other words, if we tend to judge and criticize others, we’ll receive the same in return.

That’s why I invite you to cultivate kindness towards others.

This doesn’t mean accepting everything from others. In fact, it’s out of the question to remain locked in toxic relationships.

It’s about learning to focus on other people’s qualities rather than their faults.

Indeed, haven’t you noticed how we only see the bad sides? How we tend to want to protect ourselves from others?

You don’t have to protect yourself, because others have no power over you.

What’s more, your heart is strong. It’s not afraid to love and then be sad. It’s your mind that’s afraid of being hurt.

Love is always the best answer. In other words, don’t let your mind have the last word.

So, to be happy in life, I wholeheartedly invite you to list the 10 people you come into contact with most in your daily life, and for each of these people, note down 3 of their main qualities.

This exercise will do you a world of good, because you’ll realize that you’re surrounded by beautiful people. And it will encourage you to be more kind and to receive kindness in return.

16 – Listen to your heart to be happy in life

We learned to listen to others, to satisfy their requests about us. It started with our parents. They wanted us to be more like this than like that.

And as time went by, we ended up only listening to what other people had to say about us.

That’s why we sometimes feel that our life isn’t really like us, that we’re playing a role that isn’t really ours.

It’s normal, because we haven’t learned to listen to our hearts.

Because we’re not here on Earth to live the life that others have decided for us, we’re here to live in tune with our heart.

What does it want? What does it dream of? What makes it beat stronger, faster?

Follow your heartbeat. Your happiness, your joy, your serenity is where it leads you.

In other words, to be happy in life, it’s essential to stop conforming to other people’s expectations and take time out regularly to question yourself: “What do I want? What’s important to me? Is my heart racing? How can I make it beat faster?”

17 – Calming down

We are stressed people. In all circumstances. We think at a thousand miles an hour, we have dozens of things to do at every moment…

So why should we be surprised if we’re not happy in life?

Happiness needs calm, even silence.

In fact, it needs our awareness, our consciousness of being happy.

How can we know we’re happy when we’re thinking non-stop and running around?

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to take some time every day. It only takes a minute.

Simply make yourself comfortable. Close your eyes and make yourself calm.

Remember this: “Right now, my one and only goal is to be happy.”

Breathe calmly. Breathe with happiness.

18 – Accepting imperfections

We’ve been led to believe that life can be perfect and that we can control everything! Even ourselves.

Indeed, we learned that we could change and do better, always better.

In fact, we learned to judge and reject ourselves.

Today, we think we’re either too much or not enough, and we blame ourselves for not being the person we’d like to be, the person we should be.

What if we didn’t have to be perfect?

What if we didn’t need to be perfect to be happy?

In fact, the goal on this Earth is not to control ourselves, to want to change ourselves to the point of being ashamed of ourselves. The goal is to love ourselves wholeheartedly.

For it is love that drives us to become better. It’s not rejection. Rejection only leads to more shame and anger.

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to accept your imperfections and forgive yourself for your mistakes and failures.

Remember, your purpose here is to love yourself.

There’s no shame in it – it’s your mission! The most beautiful there is.

19 – Accept the imperfections of others

Just as we reject ourselves, we reject others.

Yet aren’t we tired of constantly judging and rejecting others? Constantly telling ourselves the worst stories about them?

Indeed, we feel we’re surrounded by selfish, malicious people.

So many negative feelings, so much fear and resentment.

What if we stopped?

Because, to be happy in life, we need love!

That’s why you need to learn to accept other people’s imperfections. Understand that others will disappoint you, and that this is normal. Everyone’s different. In other words, your needs and expectations are not the same as the person in front of you.

Accept disappointment. Learn to communicate your needs and to have less and less expectation and more and more love and respect for others.

Other people are just like you. They do their best.

20 – Accept life’s imperfections

Have you ever noticed how frustrated we get when something doesn’t go as planned?

At first, we turn against ourselves or others. We tell ourselves that we didn’t organize things well enough, that we weren’t up to the task, or that others weren’t up to it.

Then we turn against life itself, telling ourselves that it’s hurting us on purpose, that it’s punishing us for something we’re not even aware of.

We feel insecure and unloved.

But that’s because we believe a lie: we can control everything.

Yes, we can prepare for some things, organize others.

But we can’t control life. It’s full of surprises. Some good, some not so good.

Life is full of miracles, but also of sorrows. That’s just the way it is. For everyone, every day.

That’s why it’s essential to be happy right now.

That’s why it’s essential to understand that life doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.

Find out more:

I invite you to read these 2 complementary articles:

Discover 11 bad habits that keep you from being happy
Discover How to learn to be happy: 8 powerful steps

I recommend this inspiring book:

The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha

In The Happiness Equation, Neil Pasricha explores the principles and strategies for achieving happiness in the midst of life’s challenges. Drawing on positive psychology and personal anecdotes, Pasricha presents a formula for happiness, offering practical ideas for shifting perspectives and prioritizing joy. This book is a guide to finding fulfillment by balancing different aspects of life and making intentional choices that lead to a more joyful, meaningful existence.

When I finished reading this book, I loved it so much that I read it again. I bought several copies to give to my family and friends. Everyone should read this book so that we can better understand and appreciate life, because it’s not what we want it to be. Then we can relax and enjoy life.

Thank you very much for reading this article.

If you liked it, let me know in the comments.

Take care of yourself