Three Most Important Concepts to Be Happy

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There is a saying by Marcus Aurelius that says, "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts", which means that the way people think might affect their life decisions. Did you know that psychology is a study of mind and behavior? It includes mental health treatment, performance enhancement, self-help, ergonomics, and many other areas that can affect the health and the daily life. There are three different ways to be happy. It all starts by the mood of the person, their self-esteem and their motivation. 

1- The mood; a concept very important to happiness

First of all, the concept of being happy is related to the mood of the person. People who have negative thoughts are more likely to feel discouraged or unhappy. The best way to keep a positive mind is to think about what is keeping us in the right mood. For instance, it can be the entourage. The people we meet every day can affect our mood because we share everything together. If those people make us feel negative emotions, the best way to put an end to it is to remove them from our life. Nobody needs someone who makes them feel unloved, miserable or unwanted. Then, to keep us in the right mood, we have to face those people and tell them what we really feel in order to feel better. Also, if we are having a bad day, the best way to feel free and relaxed is to empty our mind. There are some good ways to let off our steam like practicing a sport or listening to music. Constructive criticism can change a person in many ways if they choose to. In this case, to keep our good mood, we have to think about the positive aspects of each of these alternatives. If we talk about school, we can tell ourselves that it's going to lead us to success. Education is great because after we graduate we will be able to make a lot of money and enjoy life to the fullest. About work, we have to think that it's a good experience for our future and it helps us make money to finance our education and other expenses. Indeed, the mood is a very important concept related to happiness, which controls our life decisions.

2- What is self-esteem?

Second of all, happiness is also based on self-esteem. Self-esteem is the perception that we have of ourselves. It contains three sides: the real self (who I am), the ideal self (who I want to be) and the forced self (social expectations from me). Self-esteem has two functions where it tries to avoid social exclusion and it tries to defend from fear. It can also prevent someone from having anguish, which is the mental or physical pain. Self-esteem has three covariates. There is the low self-esteem, which is the fear of failure, anxiety if there's criticism, abandon if there's difficulty and unsatisfactory interpersonal relationships. The adequate self-esteem presents perseverance, feeling of personal efficacy, satisfactory interpersonal relationships and capacity of function in front of evaluation. The excessive self-esteem is about defensive reactions which can turn into arrogance, unsatisfactory relationships and inadequacy in front of criticism. To conclude, self-esteem is the most important thing in a human being’s life because it brings out the best and worst part of a person. Self-esteem has a direct effect on one's personality. To be happy in life, you need a balanced self esteem: there are times where we can be very confident and there are times where are not so confident. We can see that a good self-esteem is the key to happiness. 

3- You lost motivation? Try this!

Third, motivation is a concept that is very important to take into consideration. It guides and maintains our life-goals. It is what causes people to do something in their lives. For example, if someone has a goal that means a lot to them, they will realize that simply having the desire to accomplish something isn't enough. To achieve something, we need to be able to persist through obstacles and to have endurance to keep going no matter how hard it gets. There are three components to motivation. The first one is activation, which involves the decision to initiate a behavior. The second one is persistence, which is to keep going no matter what kind of obstacle is thrown in our way. The third one is intensity, which can be seen in the concentration that goes into the pursuit of the goal. Also, motivation comes from instincts, needs and arousal levels. We can see that sometimes; the motivation is there but mentally we aren't really there. However, there are some ways to keep our motivation alive. It can come from people, where we can be pushed by someone or simply by following idol directives and many others. All of that depends on each individual's goals. There is a saying by George McFly that says, "If you put your mind into it, you can accomplish anything. " The truth is, anything in life is possible, we just have to see the bright side of things and that's how motivation can grow every day. 

In summary, being happy is based on the mood where it comes from people criticism. Self-esteem, that comes from the perception that we have in ourselves, and motivation which is based on the pursuit of our life goals. Every person can contribute in their own ways to be happy. With time, effort and dedication, happiness can last longer.