Both happiness and success are really a journey more than a destination. They are built on a foundation of tiny steps and shifting mindsets. Every superstar baseball slugger knows they have to be willing to take big numbers of strikeouts at the plate to have a chance at making it to the Hall Of Fame. Every artist has to face countless critics. Every writer seeking to make the top sellers list or win a Pulitzer has to be willing to accept rejections and edits galore and every dancer has to be willing to fall over and over again!
The shifting mindset part comes in when they realize that so-called failure is only another aspect of success rather than a permanent label of their identity as a human being.
Happiness and success are built on a foundation of failures, setbacks and difficulties we step across or push through on our way to the triumph of new accomplishments, expertise and knowledge gained.
What helps us build the ability to walk across that foundation are principles and character. Principles are rules we live by because it makes us like ourselves rather than doing something to hope others like us. A principle is a rule like “do onto others as you’d have them do onto you”. Or “it’s better to give than receive”. Or “honesty is the best policy”. These things happen to have the virtue of also being true.
A character of happiness and success comes from having habits that are based on our positive life principles. These habits can be learned like any skill can through practice, determination, experimentation and patience. With some effort and perhaps luck we can find mentors to help us cultivate these character traits and skills. And sometimes we can find tools to help us grow these character traits in ourselves and become happier more successful people.
Happy Cards was created for just such a purpose. They help us shift our mindset which means the way we look at life so that we can create a new habit of growing happiness. When I set a goal to find one person a day to thank for something and or acknowledge for some quality I notice in them, I am training my brain to be on the lookout for the good in others and around me!
For most of my life my habitual thinking has lead me to look for things people are doing wrong or things I might be offended by so I can complain or correct others. This is pretty much the opposite of a success habit. People don’t improve and learn by being criticized and it doesn’t make you any friends to be the person whose always trying to “fix” everyone either.
Here are the happiness and success character traits that I’ve learned are the most likely traits to lead to the type of life I want to create.
Kindness
Intelligence
Being considerate
Creative
Honorable
Having integrity
Being charitable
Patience
Grateful
Showing empathy
Being Humorous
Being focused
Being non judgmental
These are character traits I (try) to learn and practice.
How about you? Which others might you add and work on yourself?