Improve Your Happiness with 6 Simple Strategies

Happiness is something we all want, but sometimes it feels like it’s just out of reach.

But what does happiness actually mean?

Photo by Stan B on Unsplash

To me, happiness is best described by the following quote (as I’ve discussed in this article).

Happiness means not suffering. — Naval Ravikant

Naval Ravikant is not only a successful entrepreneur but also frequently writes and talks about happiness. In “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant”, some of his helpful ideas about happiness are summarized.

Let’s take a closer look at how we can use Naval’s advice to feel happier in our lives. In the following, I want to share 6 simple strategies I’ve personally found helpful

(1) Learn happiness

This sounded wrong to me when I first read it.

But after some reflection I believe that it is indeed true. Happiness is about our mindset.

We might think that happiness comes from being successful or having lots of things, but happiness is something we can actively choose every day. By being grateful for what we have and paying attention to the present moment, we can find happiness right now.

You can even trick yourself into feeling happier overall if you just force yourself to smile. Your experiencing self (cf. Daniel Kahnemann) cannot distinguish between a forced smile and a natural one. It will trigger a positive feeling and make you feel that your smile is becoming genuine and you becoming really more happy.

(2) Be present

Have you ever felt like you’re always chasing after something, but you never feel satisfied?

It can be buying the next thing, a vacation, or just the weekend. It is natural to think about the future and it can be a great motivator to visualize our future selves, but it also has an impact on our current happiness level.

When we focus too much on the future, we miss out on enjoying what’s happening right now.

So, it’s important to stop and appreciate the present moment.

This is why “slow” things like going for a walk, or meditating are great strategies to increase our happiness. They help us to be present.

(3) Drop desires, they make you unhappy

Whenever we want something, it can actually make us unhappy.

Desires can be physical (buying a new thing, a nice vacation, …) or immaterial (a hundred likes, a post going viral, …). Desires make us unhappy because we imagine ourselves having or achieving something we don’t have or didn’t achieve. This makes us feel like a failure and triggers unhappiness.

By keeping things simple and not always wanting more, we can free ourselves from feeling dissatisfied.

The keyword is acceptance.

Sometimes life throws us curveballs, and we must decide how to deal with them. Accepting things as they are can help us feel more at peace, even when things don’t go as planned.

(4) Practice happiness habits

like meditation, spending time in the sun, and being grateful for what we have can all boost our happiness levels.

• Being yourself: It’s important to be true to who you are. Nobody else can be as good at being you as you are. So, embrace your uniqueness.
• Taking care of yourself: Making decisions that are good for you might not always be easy, but they’re worth it in the long run.
• Meditation and mental strength: Meditation can help us feel stronger and more balanced mentally. Even just taking a few minutes to sit quietly can make a big difference.
• Growing and changing: We should always be open to growing and changing. It’s part of what makes life interesting.

(5) Find peace

Peace and happiness go hand in hand.

It is because when we feel peaceful inside, it’s easier to feel happy too. When our minds are calm and quiet, we can enjoy the good things in life without worrying too much.

Peace helps us feel content with what we have - a huge part of happiness. When we’re not stressed or anxious, it’s easier to find joy in everyday moments. Overall, peace creates a nice, cozy space where happiness can settle in and stay a while.

But how do you find peace?

This will be different for everyone, but there are some practices you can use. I’ve heard that meditation can be powerful (but I’ve never tried it myself). What helps me is to free myself.

(6) Free yourself

I’ve often read a definition of happiness where it is not an end goal. It is something to attain and to look forward to. True happiness lies in the process.

Sometimes we need to break free from things that are holding us back, whether it’s expectations from others or negative feelings.

To me, a great strategy to break free from things that really bother me is letting my mind wander.

Some days at work are really tough. When I get into my car after work, I sometimes feel too tired to even listen to an audiobook. Instead, I just listen to music and let my mind wander. After some initial thought loops (about 10 to 20 minutes) thinking about my day helps me find closure to a lot of the problems that popped up throughout the day.

At this stage also my happiness has increased a lot. Now I am free to let my thoughts start to drift, and I start thinking about the future. Funny enough, these are the times when I come up with my best ideas.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, happiness isn’t something we have to chase after—it’s something we can create for ourselves every day.

By following Naval’s advice and focusing on the simple things that bring us joy, we can all live happier, more fulfilling lives.

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Thank you for reading my article!

I hope you’ve enjoyed it! What are your strategies for creating happiness for yourself? Please let me know in the comments!

For this article, I’ve used the book “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant” by Eric Jorgenson, as a main resource. I can highly recommend the whole book. It was written and published openly and is available completely for free here.