We all want to be happy in life, but let’s face it, most of us, when it comes down to it, kind of suck at being happy.

Many have taken the dirt road towards happiness and the highway to unhappiness.

For some people, knowing how to pursue happiness effectively remains a lifelong mystery.

How come?

Why are we so bad at the one thing that most of us crave so desperately in life?

Before we get to that, let’s first talk about the piano for a moment.

“Erhh… okay?”

If you practice playing the piano one time, you aren’t going to be good at it, correct? (Unless you are super talented…)

If you practice playing the piano for a month, you may learn to play a little.

Now, if, after a month of practice, you stop playing the piano altogether, that skill you have just developed will start to fade in time.

But, if you keep practicing, day in and day out, every week, every month, and every year, you will darn well know how to play the piano.

Practice makes a master.

That goes not only for piano playing, but also for painting, singing, playing chess, photography, writing, running, etc. — in short, any skill.

And that is also true for being happy.

Yes, that’s right. Because happiness is a skill.

It isn’t something some are born with and others are not. It is simply something that some people practice, and others do not.

That right there might very well be the BIGGEST secret about happiness that many do not know.

Like the example with the piano, happiness is something you need to practice on a consistent basis to get better at it. And few people do that.

If I ask you, when did you last practice being happy?

I think most may have trouble thinking of one specific day where they practiced that skill.

How indeed can you be good at it then? How can you expect to be good at something you never practice?

How can you expect to be a grand master of the piano like Mozart when you have only touched one piano key in your life? How do you plan to be a great painter like Picasso when you have just held a brush once?

And how do you expect to have the peace and contentment of the Dalai Lama when you have never really practiced the skill of happiness?

Of course, so many people suck at being happy. It’s the same reason why so many people suck at any skill they haven’t practised on a consistent basis.

We all have the potential to become good at these skills. We all have it in us to be good at being happy.

Yes, some might pick it up faster than others, as with piano, singing, writing, etc.

But that does not matter. What matters is that you understand that we all can learn the skill of happiness, as with any other skill.

“Well, that’s great and all, but how do I practice happiness?!”

Through exercises.

How do you become better at singing? You do exercises in holding a tune.

How do you build muscles? You do the right exercises for the muscle groups you are trying to develop.

When you go to the gym, you follow a training schedule consisting of specific exercises to achieve your goal, whether that is getting fit, gaining more muscles, etc. But why do we not have a daily schedule of workouts for being happy?

You tell me.

While there are countless exercises, I will talk in depth about three of them that, at the current moment, I practice every day. At the end of the article, however, I will write down a few other suggestions for happiness exercises that you may want to investigate.