Believe it or not, learning something new is a Happiness Habit. When we learn something new, the brain creates new neural synapses (connections), and this neural stimulation creates a physiological feeling of self-satisfaction and increased confidence. We simply feel better about ourselves. This is not an accident. These physiological feelings of happiness are the brain’s way of rewarding us for engaging in good brain behavior. The brain’s secondary purpose (the first being to keep us alive) is to learn. When we learn new things, we actually increase the mass of our brain (new neurons = new mass). The brain is one of the very few internal organs whose mass increases by use (the stomach being the other obvious one).  The more we engage in learning, the more the brain will reward us with feelings of happiness. Each time you learn something new, therefore, you are creating a happiness event. The winners of the happiness contest in life are those with the most happiness events. Set a goal, for the next month, to create 30 happiness events by learning something new every day. Devote 20-30 minutes each day, for the next month, reading something that will help you on the job or increase your knowledge in some hobby or passion you might have.  Learn and be happy.

Happiness Habits are automated Happiness Activities that create Happiness Events. The more Happiness Habits we have the more Happiness Events we have in life and the happier we will be are overall. One of the keys, therefore, to overall happiness, is to make happiness a habit. A simple way to do this is to add one Happiness Habit every month. Exercising is a Happiness Habit. While the activity itself is not a happiness event, the activity, when completed, creates happiness. We feel happy because we’ve done something that is good (healthy) for our body. The more you exercise, the happier you will be. Since we are all after the same thing – happiness – it makes sense to engage in more frequent happiness activities.

Set a goal of exercising for one month. After a month of repetitive exercise, the brain will begin to create a new neural pathway. Eventually, with repetition, this new neural pathway will become a habit. It takes anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for a habit to form. What makes a habit form quicker is emotion. Happiness is an emotion. Once daily exercise becomes a habit, you will not be able to stop exercising even if you wanted to because habits, once formed, are hard to break.

Continuing my march through the Happiness Habits, I move on to the next: pursuing one learning goal every month, related to your job. There is so much to learn in the world. The true value of knowledge, however, is in its application. Knowledge, without action, is like a boat without water to sail in. You need to apply that knowledge somehow. The Happiness Habit of pursuing one learning goal every month, studying one topic related to your job, guarantees that you will create at least twelve Happiness Activities a year.

But how does learning something new about your industry or job translate into happiness? While the activity itself may not bring you instant happiness, the knowledge gained and then applied will bring you lasting happiness. You will begin to see more opportunities at work that will help you do a better job for your boss, colleagues, customers or clients. The real reward is in the benefits that accrue from pursuing this Happiness Habit. And if you continue to apply what you’ve learned, the knowledge will stay with you forever and continue to reward you with happiness. There is long-term happiness in learning.

In my study of the daily habits of the rich and poor I found that 72% of the wealthy volunteer five or more hours per month. And they teach this Rich Habit to their children. There are a number of reasons the wealthy volunteer including: giving back to the community, to meet new people, to grow stronger relationships, as well as business networking motivations, but one byproduct of volunteering is that volunteers derive an emotional satisfaction in helping others inside and outside their community. Volunteering is a happiness activity. I discovered from my research that wealthy individuals engage in more happiness activities than others and it is the frequency of these happiness activities that create an overall feeling of happiness. Rich or poor, if you want to increase your overall happiness you need to engage in more happiness activities in life. You need to make happiness a habit.

In my five-year study, 93% of the wealthy who had mentors attributed their wealth to their mentors. This is an eye opening statistic because it trumpets the financial importance of finding a mentor in life. Those that do find a mentor, realize great success in life.

Mentorship is a two-way street. The benefits accrue on both sides. Mentors learn from those they mentor, they create devoted, cult-like followers, they benefit financially (mentors and their mentees typically work together) but more importantly, the act of mentoring others is a happiness activity. It creates happiness for both parties.

Happiness is a habit. There are certain Happiness Habits successful people practice almost every day. I touched on a few last week (Practiced Optimism and Living in the Moment). This week I’m going to shine a light on some of the others. Today’s Happiness Habit involves conquering fear. Fear holds you back from taking on new challenges in life. It sidelines most of us for most of our lives. What to do about it? This week do one thing that scares you, big or small. Spend the entire week overcoming just one fear. Overcoming fear will alter your thinking. It will reprogram your mind from negative to positive. It will increase your level of confidence. Doing something that scares your will take you out of your comfort zone and make you anxious and nervous. It will also exhilarate you. Human beings were not intended to be slaves to our fears. Our core fears reside in the limbic system portion of our brains. The neocortex, the most recent evolutionary portion of our brain, has the ability to consciously overcome our fears. When you take on a fear, both parts of the brain begin to compete against each other. The neocortex is far superior in terms of size. It has billions more neurons than the limbic system. It can easily overcome any fear. So go out this week and scare yourself. Become the master of fear and not its slave.

In my study I found that successful, wealthy people were happier than everyone else because they make a habit of happiness. One of the happiness habits they practice is living in the moment. But what does living in the moment really mean? Have you ever been at a party, fun event or family gathering and your mind was elsewhere, thinking about work, projects that need to get done, issues you have with people, worrying over your finances, bills, etc.? What a waste of a good happiness event. Living in the moment means clearing your mind of all thoughts and enjoying the moment, enjoying the present. When you live in the moment you create a happiness event. When you allow other thoughts to interfere with a happiness event, you lose that happiness event forever. The key to overall happiness in life is accumulating more happiness events. You do this by thinking about nothing but the present. You do this by living in the moment.

Optimism isn’t something you are born with. It needs to be a routine; it needs to become a daily habit. Successful people understand this. They practice optimistic thinking every day. It’s part of their daily routine. Some of the tools they use include:

• Daily Meditation – 2-5 minutes each day morning and night. They visualize realizing their dreams and goals. They see themselves living their new future life.
• Vision Boards – 5-10 pictures of the things they want in their life. These pictures are taped onto cardboard, scroll on their desktop or posted where they can view them every day.
• Daily Affirmations – Various affirmations are repeated every day. These represent short statements of affirming the realization of their dreams and goals.
• Cancel – Any time some negative thought or emotion enters their mind they immediately recognize it and cancel it from their mind before it takes root.
• Script Their Future Life – Successful people write out a few paragraphs of what their future, ideal life is. They read this script at least once a week. This script keeps them focused on the big picture and keeps them in a positive mindset.