In a recent study conducted on happiness, it has been identified that there are fundamental principles. It was decided to dub these fundamental principles as the Eight Fabulous Facts.
Each one of these facts sounds reasonably obvious and straightforward, but each was the product of incredible reflection. Take the 2nd fabulous fact—it’s hard to embellish the clarity that was gained when they finally managed to put it into words. Here they are:
1. To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.

2. One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy;
One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself. This may sound rhetoric but it is the basic truth about life.

3. The days are long, but the years are short. (Click here to see my one-minute movie; of everything I’ve written about happiness, I think this video resonates most with people.)

4. You’re not happy unless you think you’re happy. (Many argue the opposite case. John Stuart Mill, for example, wrote, “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.” I disagree.)

5. I can build a happy life only on the foundation of my own nature.

6. The only person I can change is myself.

7. Happy people make people happy, but I can’t make someone be happy, and
No one else can make me happy.

8. Now is now. (For more on this truth, read the last chapter of Find Happiness & Share It. I love writing endings, and if I may say so, endings are my forte, and this is the best ending I’ve ever written.)
What did I miss? What Splendid Truth is missing from that list?
Now I’m trying to come up with my personal 8 promising symbols for happiness. Let’s see—bluebird, ruby slippers, dice, blood, bird house, treasure box, roses…hmmm. I will have to keep thinking about that.
Comments are welcome or add your own list to the eight…

• Are you reading Find Happiness & Share It or Master Your Emotions in an eBook group or in a book group? Email me on eBooks@smartebookshop.com if you’d like the one-page discussion guide. Or if you’re reading it in a spirituality book club, a Bible study group, or the like, email me for the spirituality one-page discussion guide. And if you’d like to join my book club (each month, I pick one book about happiness, one work of children’s literature, one eccentric pick), just let us chat.