Everyone wants to be happy, but very few people are willing to do what they need to do, to actually be happy.  Here are five activities that will help you to be on your way to experiencing the happiness that you were created for.

1. Express Gratitude!  Take time to say thank you for all of the blessings that flow into and through your life.  Even when life is not working the way you want it to, there is still much that you have to be happy about.  You get to make a choice about where you are going to focus.  You can focus on the negatives or on the positives – it really is up to you.  Just by taking the time to express your gratefulness everyday, will help you to focus on the positives rather than the negatives of life.

2. Practice Acts Of Kindness!  We get so focused on ourselves, that we often miss all different kinds of reasons to be happy.  Take some time and make an intentional effort to reach out and do things to make other people’s lives better.  We get better at doing acts of kindness with practice.  The more you do it, then the easier it gets.  Think right now about some things that you can do to show kindness to others.

3. Learn To Forgive!  Forgive yourself, forgive those close to you and forgive your enemies.  Life is too short to hold a grudge and a grudge only enslaves you.  Forgiveness is not easy and it is something that you will have to do for yourself, but the more you do it, the more you learn and the more you learn, the easier it gets.  Remember and remind yourself that forgiveness means freedom.

4. Commit To Your Goals!  Fail to plan and you plan to fail.  What do you want to achieve and accomplish with your life?  Where do you see yourself and your relationships in six months, a year, five years?  You need to think about your goals, know your goals and then commit to make your goals a reality.  You can do this, because it’s what you were created for.

5. Take Care Of Your Body!  Give yourself the gift of time and make sure that you get rest, exercise and a diet that gives you what you need to be energized to accomplish all the things that you were created for.  This is one of those areas that most of us think about, but often never get around to dealing with.

Focus on these five activities and you will begin to experience happiness, which is a gift that God created you for.  Live blessed!

Two Options:  You basically have two options when it comes to how you choose to live your life.  You can live a life that is shaped by the world in which you live or you can live the life you were created to live.  The best option is to fulfill your created purpose.

Power Thoughts:  Here are a few power thoughts to help us get started in the right direction.  You can do something.  You are not stuck, unless you want to be stuck.  When you start to express gratitude, then you begin to cultivate optimism.  Practice kindness everyday by trying to bring a smile to others.

Helpful Ideas:  Get you a journal and start to record everything that the Spirit is teaching you about who you are and what your purpose is.  Record your thoughts and learnings.  Remind yourself of what is really important and take some time to re-create.

Make space in your life by working to get out the bad, but make sure that you replace it with good.  Start to change or cut out anything that is taking you down and out and replace this with stuff and people who lift you up and encourage you to something better.

Live love.  You can do all kinds of really nice things and you can give and give and give, but if you do it all for the wrong reasons, then what does it really mean.  Love is the great motivator that will grow you in a right direction toward the things of the Spirit.

These are just a few thoughts that will help you to claim the new life that your Creator has for you.  Take some time to think about it and take some steps to head in this new and better direction.