The pursuit of happiness is one of the most important things in life — so important that our founding fathers described it as an inalienable right. But what’s really involved in true happiness? Whatever you think you need, these are the only 10 things that matter:
- You need people who love you. It sounds obvious, but not everyone is lucky enough to be surrounded by loving family and friends. If you are that fortunate, keep them close because they’re an important key to happiness.
- You need to have professional goals. Even if you’re not doing anything wild like disarming bombs or performing brain surgery, you still need to have a goal to work towards. When you finally accomplish that goal, it’ll be the ultimate happiness.
- You also need personal life goals. Most people have similar life goals; things like houses, marriage and kids. However, your goals can be anything that’ll make you personally happy.
- You need a solid support system. It might sound like something that’s included in the “people who love you” category, but they’re not necessarily the same thing. A support system includes people who would literally be there for you in a pinch, like if you needed to borrow some cash to avoid eviction or if you called from jail.
- You need self-esteem. It’s not really possible to be happy if you don’t like yourself. Of all the people in the world, you should be your own #1 fan.
- You need a passion to pursue. Whether your passion is just a hobby, a hobby that supplements your income, or the entirety of your income, pursuing it is an important step to finding true happiness. After all, you didn’t choose your passion; it chose you.
- You need to have a sense of adventure. You can’t be happy if you’re bored and playing it safe all the time. Go out and live a little! Every day you’re one step closer to death anyway, so you might as well live while you’re alive.
- You have to have fun hobbies. The happiest people are the ones who have fun in their off time. Not everyone has the same definition of fun, but, however you define fun, you’ll be happy if you’re enjoying your own fun hobbies regularly.
- You need work/life balance. There’s nothing fun or happy about being a workaholic. If you spend your entire life working and never allow yourself to enjoy some down time, you’ll just be miserable and stressed out, so skip those overtime hours and find something better to do.
- You need love (the romantic kind). I saved the best for last, because love is the #1 thing that makes people happy. As tempting as it is sometimes to just give up on finding it, you should keep striving because the search will be worth it when you find the real thing.
