Have you ever felt there was something more to life? That what you have should be enough, but there is still a restlessness you just can’t explain? Have you ever felt like what you did just didn’t seem to matter and wasn’t as important as what everyone else was doing? Have you felt like no matter how hard you tried you just couldn’t make a difference? Does it ever seem like you are constantly banging your head against wall and nothing important ever changes?

These feelings are all natural and common. As part of our culture, we learn to chase success as an end result rather than a daily habit. Success is a concept far into the future. A place we will eventually arrive. We are led to believe that when we reach the destination of success, we will also become happy. In order to reach this distant port of success and happiness, we have to work hard and sacrifice today’s happiness. Or we hear that spending time being happy is frivolous and will prevent us from reaching success.

Happiness and success are connected. They are intertwined in our actions, but they are not a pinnacle we reach, they are daily habits and practices. They are small things we choose to do every day, that eventually lead to milestones of success along a journey that lasts our entire life. The antidote to the feelings described above is to choose positive actions every day that will help us feel contented and fulfilled, that will help us feel like we matter and can make a difference, and that will help us feel hopeful and excited to get up every morning.

Find your Higher Purpose – How can you help others? How can you make a difference in someone else’s life? What are you really passionate about? What are you really good at and how can you use that strength to help someone else? Define Success – what is success for you? What have you accomplished so far that meets that definition? What are you doing everyday to reach your definition of success? Take a moment to appreciate what you have accomplished, no matter how small. Choose Happiness – You can choose to be happy. You can choose to find and appreciate what is good in your life or you can choose to be angry and upset about what is bad in your life. What do you have that you can be grateful for? What positive things are going on in your life? Make time to be happy. Fight the urge to ruminate on everything that doesn’t go the way you want it to. Don’t just talk about being happy. Take action! Choose to be happy and take actions everyday that lead toward happiness.

You matter. Your life matters. You can make a difference. Gain clarity on how, by finding your Higher Purpose, defining success and choosing happiness.