4 Essentials for Happiness

You may have a thousand different goals over the course of your lifetime,
but they all will fall into one of four basic categories. Everything you do
is an attempt to enhance the quality of your life in one or more of these
areas.

The Key to Happiness
The first category is your desire for happy relationships. You want to love
and be loved by others. You want to have a happy, harmonious home life. You
want to get along well with the people around you, and you want to earn the
respect of the people you respect. Your involvement in social and community
affairs results from your desire to have happy interactions with others and
to make a contribution to the society you live in.

Enjoy Your Work
The second category is your desire for interesting and challenging work.
You want to make a good living, of course, but more than that, you want to
really enjoy your occupation or profession. The very best times of your
life are when you are completely absorbed in your work.

Become Financially Independent
The third category is your desire for financial independence. You want to
be free from worries about money. You want to have enough money in the bank
so that you can make decisions without counting your pennies. You want to
achieve a certain financial state so that you can retire in comfort and
never have to be concerned about whether or not you have enough money to
support your lifestyle. Financial independence frees you from poverty and a
need to depend upon others for your livelihood. If you save and invest
regularly throughout your working life, you will eventually reach the point
where you will never have to work again.

Enjoy Excellent Health
The fourth and final category is your desire for good health, to be free of
pain and illness and to have a continuous flow of energy and feelings of
well-being. In fact, your health is so central to your life that you take
it for granted until something happens to disrupt it.

Peace of Mind is the Key
Peace of mind is essential for every one of these. The greater your peace
of mind, the more relaxed and positive you are, the less stress you suffer,
the better is your overall health.

The more peace of mind you have, the better are your relationships, the
more optimistic, friendly and confident you are with everyone in your life.
When you feel good about yourself on the inside, you do your work better
and take more pride in it. You are a better boss and coworker. And the
greater your overall peace of mind, the more likely you are to earn a good
living, save regularly for the future and ultimately achieve financial
independence.

Control Your Attention
Life is very much a study of attention. Whatever you dwell upon and think
about grows and expands in your life. The more you pay attention to your
relationships, the quality and quantity of your work, your finances and
your health, the better they will become and the happier you will be.

Action Exercises
Here are three things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, take time on a regular basis to think about what would make you
really happy in each of the four areas.

Second, set specific, measurable goals for improvement in your
relationships, your health, your work and your finances and write them down.

Third, resolve to do something every day to increase the quality of some
area of your life - and then keep your resolution.

Author: Brian Tracy