4 Ways To Increase Happiness Immediately

Most self help is ultimately about discovering how to be happy.

I've read over 5,000 books related, in one way or another, to improving either my own life or the lives of others. And, in so reading, I can say that ultimately what we seek when reading such a book is to increase our happiness from one of the following things:

1. Increases in:
a. Pleasure; improving how much we enjoy the things we do.
b. Career Success; be a better boss, creating a dream job, etc.
c. Dating/Relationship finding/keeping someone special and improving how we relate.
d. Financial Abundance; making more money, investing more wisely, etc.
e. Health; being healthy in diet, weight, muscle, shape, etc.
f. Hobby/Free Time; improving certain aptitudes in recreational activities.
g. Wisdom; gaining perspective in life, philosophy, and experience.

Sometimes, our success increases when our failure decreases, so many additional books deal with decrease. Therefore, our happiness increases when we decrease some of the following:

2. Decreases in:
a. Getting rid of doubt and self-incrimination.
b. Fear; removal of fear or ways to overcome fear.
c. Blocks; removal of blocks to success.
d. Debt; ways to remove or eliminate debt or poor money management.
e. Poor relationship choices; bad dating or inter-relational habits.
f. Failure; learning from failure to turn losing into winning.
g. Disease; overcoming disease or other health ailments.
h. Time management failure; overcoming procrastination, etc.

Almost all self-help topics could be categorized in one of these sentences above.

Based upon this analysis, I'm going to give you four simple ways to increase happiness:

First, Take three.

If you wish to increase happiness, why not take the simple approach to address THREE of these at any given time. No more than three, just three. If you're having a problem with doubt, start a new discipline of confidence. Find the experts on teaching confidence and learn the essence of what they share. If you're struggling with getting in shape, take one new action that will do that for you: in my case, I've joined a new gym today that will enable me to drop the next 10 pounds in my weight management goal. Or, if you're not enjoying your career, do a career evaluation. Read a few books written by people who LOVE their career and follow some of their advice. By working on several aspects of your life and continually improving, you're creating a habit of life improvement. This habit will lead to increased happiness.

Second, What really matters most?

If you ask almost anyone who has lived a full life, they will tell you that sharing laughter and stories with good friends and family are the moments that matter most in your life. To improve this aspect, why not create special time for those you love, who add the most joy to your life, each week? Perhaps Saturday coffee with friends, or meeting for a happy hour on Thursday or Friday night? Maybe a special Tuesday dinner night that moves from couple to couple? Do something like this a couple of times a week and you'll never feel like you've missed something important. By spending time with those you love, you automatically ensure you'll be happier.

Third, simplify.

In Eastern philosophy, common wisdom is to simply "be" in the moment and experience life right now. What can you do to help you accomplish this? Can you reduce the clutter in your home? Can you make your commute shorter? How can you reduce wasted space or things you no longer use? How can you minimize time spent wastefully and replace it with things you love the most? To the extent you can accomplish some of this simplification, your life will improve and you will be happier.

Last, it may sound silly, but LOOK UP and show the sky your PEARLY WHITES.

We need sunlight and I always find it remarkable that when I make a practice to look up to the sun and show the sky my pearly whites, I automatically lift my mood. The converse is watching television. The more we watch television, where we commonly look straight or down, and let life get dictated or shown to us, we have happiness decrease. So, this last one is simple: get outside more often and spend less time in front of the television. When you're outside more often you will bump into people and have a chance to witness, create, and experience life more fully. While you're at it, why not learn something new? Tennis, golf, basketball, play an instrument, paint a landscape, whatever, but doing something outside is likely to make you happy.

So, there's a simple four-part strategy to increase happiness and enjoy your life more completely. If you find this useful, share it with friends!

Did I miss anything on your own list of happiness creation? If you've got more ways to improve happiness, feel free to weigh in on my comments page.
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Get Fit Now With AspireNow Products

Many of you who read the blog may not be aware that I created an Amazon AspireNow store about a year ago. There are some great books in there for Life Purpose, Elegant Simplicity, Business Aspiration, and Smooth Sailing relationships.

Today, I thought I'd point out that you can purchase everything from a power yoga workout CD to a new stair master in the "Get Fit Now" portion of the store. I just added a few new products to the store, so there are new "hot products" you can browse. Check it out and let me know if I should add any cool products to help people get fit now with less effort and higher success:

AspireNow Store: Get Fit Now

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How I Lost 20 lbs In 5 Months

I've officially done it: I lost 20 lbs in 5 months.

Those of you who know me closely know that I don't like being overweight. I never date anyone significantly over weight, nor do I, myself, ever let myself get out of whack with my fitness routine. That was, until last year. What happened is I'd had toe surgery to repair an ingrown toenail. Now, a toe may not seem like a big deal, but that toe problem kept me off the beach (no walks), away from the dance floor (yep, no dancing), and pretty much stopped most of my other power aerobic activity. Unfortunately, I sat around and ate more with all that extra time. The result: I went from 18 lbs overweight to 38 lbs overweight! And even though I'm 6'3" tall, people were starting to comment: not good!


This year, I decided to take action and get myself back into shape.

How did I get in better shape? I'll share my tips here:


1. Do what you love. I started going for walks on the beach, playing golf, playing tennis, and going dancing again. These activities that I love gave me an easier start back into getting into shape. It didn't feel HARD to do any of these things. On the contrary, it was EASY. Always start with something pretty easy before getting into the harder aspects of any program.


2. I started working out. By implementing a workout program, I started to gain muscle again. At first, this didn't help me lose any weight. I stayed the same weight on the scale. BUT I gained muscle. And muscle burns off calories faster than fat, any day. To burn more fat you must gain more muscle! So, I started working out. Not only that, but I feel more toned now and enjoy the feeling of being more muscular.

3. I quit drinking. Okay, not completely, but I cut back on the booze. You retain 4x more fat when you drink alcohol than when you don't. So, if you want to reduce fat, it only makes sense to eliminate or significantly reduce your drinking of alcoholic beverages, including mixed drinks, beer, and wine. The side result is I think more clearly and spend less money! How did I do it? I drink 8 oz. water any time I feel the urge to drink. It works!

4. Dance more! I started seriously upping the amount of dancing I was doing starting on April 1. I did this for two reasons: (a) I wanted to be a better dancer, (b) I had gone through a breakup and wanted to meet other single women. I didn't realize at the time that I'd get in better shape from dancing, but man-oh-man some of those dance lessons kicked my butt! Especially the Afro-Cuban dance lesson with the professional choreographer. See my article on Salsa dancing to learn more on this one...


5. Eat healthier. Instead of drinking a soda, I now drink water or apple juice. Yes, the apple juice has calories. But, the saying "an apple a day" makes sense to me, so I'm not on a low-carb diet, just a healthier diet. I'll eat my fruit, vegetables, and less meat and processed foods like chips or french fries. Since I made this diet change, I found myself initially VERY hungry - to the point of feeling like I could eat the paint off the wall. However, after about two weeks of this hunger my stomach adjusted and now I'm fine with my new diet.

6. Aerobic techniques. The next step of my workout program has been to implement aerobic techniques to combine distance, repetitive, and short-distance activities into my workout. At the beach, I now combine walking with jogging, backwards jogging, and sprinting during two phases of my walk. Doing this aerobic work is raising my heart-rate and also helping rid the fat.


7. Play Competitive Tennis. My final step of my workout program is to find other tennis players and start playing tennis two or three times a week. I'm doing this because (a) I'll make new friends, (b) tennis players are in good shape and (c) I might have a little fun competing.


See, there's an old saying "If you want to be successful, copy other people who are successful." I noticed that people with the best physique are those who either: (a) workout, (b) play sports (like tennis, surfing, volleyball, and racquetball), and (c) dance. If you're seeking a way to get into your ideal shape, what program will you use?


Yes, I still have 18 more lbs to go, but now I'm in the discipline of living in a way that WILL drop the weight and WILL get me in better shape. I started small, and worked up to it. Disclaimer: As with any workout program, always consult a doctor before beginning your own program. But once you start, commit to it and stick with it! Sure, I didn't achieve my initial goal of 20 pounds in 30 days, but I did realize this goal withing 5 months! I hit my goal when I followed through on my commitment and stuck with it.

We don't have to starve ourselves to drop the weight and gain the muscle. We don't have to kill ourselves in the gym 10 times a week, either. We just need to be more disciplined to take the time and make the effort to be our best self.
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Join Our iNutrition Team!

Why Should You Join iNutrition and Top Team Today?

Do you want to get involved in the explosive healthcare, weight-loss, and fitness industries?

Have you ever thought "Yes, I'd like to join an network marketing company, but at the ground floor, not after 60 Million people are already in it?"

I just stumbled upon a BRAND NEW opportunity that is truly revolutionary and unique.

What makes an opportunity unique?

1. When there are truly NO MIDDLEMEN
   
2. When you deal directly with a 12 year old established manufacturer that has 700 established retail products.
   
3. When you help to mold new products from the manufacturer.

This BRAND NEW site explains it all.

Visit: http://aspirenow.inutritionopportunity.com/

Imagine being able to cut out the middleman and sell products directly from the manufacturer to the consumer. This is iNutrition. iNutrition is a well-funded company with a proven track record selling millions of dollars in superb nutritional products.

So how did this all start?

iNutrition has been purchased by Tim Connolly for $25 Million dollars. He is the CEO of INutrition.com and the person standing behind this amazing opportunity.

His vision is to take iNutrition to the next level: the US market. That's right, iNutrition already sells products in over 16 countries, but is just starting to tap the US market for penetration.

Imagine being able to introduce INutrition products to 200 million US households. Great, right?

But what's the money? The commissions, as MLM compensation goes, is off-the-hook! I am not talking about some 3-4% like many other MLM companies pay, but some substantial commissions that will put money in your pocket very quickly.

iNutrition is different than any other network marketing company because they actually own the manufacturing facility for their products. In addition, iNutrition produce 699 of the 700 products that they sell. This means we can introduce iNutrition products to the world at the lowest prices possible and keep a substantial amount of money for ourselves.

Unlike 99.9% of other companies, iNutrition manufactures 699 of the 700 retail products!

Most of you who know AspireNow's founder, Scott Andrews, know that he doesn't jump on 99% of most MLM opportunities. Why? Because they require a lot of work, time, and many actually take you away from your life and friends. iNutrition promises to be different. It's simple, easy, and their products deliver on the promise of good health. Learn more from the iNutrition page here:

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