10 Simple Habits To Be Happy Every Day

It's easy to get caught up in the to-do list. I know personally I have a never-ending, always growing list of things to do that I could spend all day every day on. If this sounds familiar to you, you're obviously not alone. We're in this together. What I have been paying attention to in my own life are these ways that I can feel happy, content, and fulfilled no matter what is going on in my life, and all at relatively low to no cost. Because just as easy as it is to get caught up in your to-do list, it's also easy to think about, well, when this thing is better, or when I have more money, I'll be a little bit happier, I'll be a little bit more content. Being able to pay attention to the things that I am capable of doing every day, no matter what, helps me realize that not just is happiness an inside job, but it's also something that I can reach for and attain every single day. Here's my list of 10 ways that you can be happy and content every day. Let's go ahead and get into it. The number one thing that I can do every day to feel happy is exercise. Now, I've been doing CrossFit and jiu-jitsu for a little while now, but I want to be clear that whatever you want to do that helps you feel good moving your body and exercising is the right thing for you. Don't let anybody tell you, including me, that you have to do a particular type of exercise to feel good. Part of feeling good is exercising, and that is just moving your body. So even if it makes you feel a little sore in the short term, it will really pay off for your body, for your mind, and for your health in the long term. The second thing that I can do every day to feel happy is spend time outdoors. Now that is outside of like if I'm commuting, if I'm just running errands, I'm talking about intentional time on a walk at the park, in the woods preferably. There are very tangible, real benefits to spending intentional time outside. I shoot for 30 minutes a day. I don't always hit that, but that is always my goal. I just know that when I'm outside, I feel better. I look better and I feel healthier. I breathe more deeply. And when you have that intentional time outside, I want you to realize that you can also combine some of these practices together. So a nice boost would be if you spend your 30 minutes of outside time also exercising. I can knock two of those things out at once. And you're going to see some other ways that you can stack happiness together, just like you might stack habits together. So it's an important point that I want you to keep in mind as we go through the rest of this list.

Another thing that makes me happy is when my clothes fit and perform well.

That's why I've become such a big fan of Western Rise.

Western Rise's Evolution Pant is probably, most definitely, let me show you this. It is my most favorite pair of pants that I have gotten and worn in a really long time. They are light. They are very stretchy. And so I don't have to like, I can hike in them. I can wear them to a nice dinner.

My wife loves them.

She says I look better in these pants than I do in my jeans, and she likes the way that I look in jeans, if you know what it means. They're very attractive. They're very packable. They are perfect for traveling. They will fold up, roll up, and be smaller than a standard 32-ounce water bottle. I haven't even tried to pack these very well and you can see how small they are compared to— this is a 40-ounce Yeti water bottle. Here are the pants. They are smaller easily and lighter, lighter than this water bottle, which is only like, I don't know, maybe a quarter of the way full. You can't go wrong with these Western Rise Evolution pants. They have a sale going on right now. Go to their website, link in the description below. They are a supporter of the channel. I am a big fan of them. Highly recommend these Western Rise Evolution pants and anything else that they're selling. I have a couple of shirts, and again, one of the things that makes me happy is when my clothes fit and perform well. And if you're looking for that, Western Rise is for you.

The third way to be happy every day is reading. And reading for me just helps me feel a lot calmer and helps me engage and learn in different ways than watching something on YouTube, or even listening to a podcast or an audiobook. To me, reading is so much more immersive than any of those other mediums, because if I am listening to a podcast or an audiobook, I can go for a walk, I can do the dishes, I can pick up around the house, and all those things are beneficial, and I'm glad I can do both. But I've realized that when I'm reading, I'm just sitting in a place and I'm reading the book, and that's the only thing that I'm doing, that very clear, immersive, single-tasking of time reading really helps me feel calmer, happier, and gives me a lot of benefits as the day goes on. A little bit of encouragement that I want to slip into this video right here is if you think to yourself, okay, well, I got to spend 30 minutes outside, I got to spend 30 minutes reading, I got to spend 30 minutes exercising. What if I spend 30 minutes outside exercising while reading? Well, one of the things that I want you to keep in mind as I'm sharing times for these things is that the time that I set as a goal for myself is not something that you need to necessarily set for yourself. I have a video called A Simple Time Management Principle that I'm going to link to in the description, but if you've heard me talk about task versus time constraints before, that's what that video is going to talk about. So I wouldn't worry so much about, Matt said I had to get 30 minutes of outdoor time today. Instead, think of, I just have to do this thing. I just want to move a little bit. Reading for me is specifically a task more than a time in a good way. Like, I just want to have the practice of reading every day. So even if I get 5 to 10 minutes in, check, I have spent that time reading. That's an example of a task constraint, whereas saying a time constraint is spending that 30 minutes. Okay, now back to the 10 ways to be happy list, but I wanted to share that with you in, in the middle of this. The fourth way that I can feel happy every day is by journaling. Journaling is kind of the entry point into therapy for me. I was journaling for years before I actually started seeing a therapist, and it made that transition for me. I realized that through journaling I had had a lot of access to my feelings and emotions, that, yeah, I was able to kind of pick up therapy, if that's such a thing, pretty quickly because journaling had really helped me lessen my anxiety and my stress when things were going pretty crazy. It creates a log in a really good way of things that are happening in your life. Like, literally, if you just think of your journal as a logbook, it can be beneficial to you. But you'll see a theme, like with all these, all these ways that I'm increasing happiness are also ways that I've seen it lower my anxiety and stress levels. And journaling has definitely been a huge practice for me in that. If you want to know more about how to build a journaling habit, make sure you check out the video that I'll have linked in the description below. There's also a free 30-day journaling challenge that you can sign up to, and you'll get 30 days of journaling prompts to help you start the habit and build the practice. The 5th way to feel happy every day is by spending some amount of time working free from Wi-Fi. Now, I still might use my computer, but often this is literally like disconnecting from the internet, turning the Wi-Fi off on my computer. In fact, this, the script for this video was written while my Wi-Fi was down and I could just concentrate on writing the script. And even while I'm shooting this video, my computer is being repaired, so I can't even really do too much on my computer. I'm actually reading the script on my phone. So there's a lot of things that I can almost finally get around to doing when a lot of the temptation, the distraction, the always-on notifications are removed from Wi-Fi. I find that some of my best work is actually done when I'm not connected to the internet. And realizing this, again, just paying attention to when happiness goes up and stress and anxiety go down, seeing that I can disconnect from the noise, from the network, and actually get really fulfilling work done has been a big win for me. The 6th way to feel happy every day is through cooking. I love to cook. I grew up cooking with my mom in the kitchen and grilling with my dad outside, and so it was a big part of my life growing up. And even as I have become a husband and father myself, I still love doing a lot of the cooking because as I have, like many of us, grown to I spend my days in front of a computer screen or an iPhone or whatever, even this camera, there's not a lot of hands-on tactical things that I get to do. And cooking does that for me. And it has the added benefit of then I get to see how my kids like it, how my wife likes it, how like friends and other family that come over. And so for me, cooking is a way that I can have like a very tangible immediate result something that I'm doing and see the happiness that it brings to others and get to experiment with different things in the kitchen. I just love to cook and it makes me happy. The 7th way to feel happy every day is present time with friends and family, people that I love. And like many of you, one of the things that I missed the most over the past 2 years was a larger feeling of immediate physical community with others. Because I've noticed that, you know, when it's— you don't notice how much you miss it until it's gone. When I didn't have those people around me, like coming to the house, going over to other people's houses, meet, you know, meeting up at parks or restaurants, whatever, there was something that made me less happy to not be around people as much. And I realized like how much I actually miss like physical touch. It's, you know, hugs, it's high fives, it's like, you know, kind of banging into each other a little bit if you are playing some Ultimate Frisbee or something. It's spending time with people that I love is really something that makes me happy every day. And that's not any, you know, breaking news. None of this is. And that's one of the things that I want you to take away. Everything that I've talked to you about of these first 7, none of these like necessarily cost any money. I mean, sure, if you love cooking, you gotta buy some food, but you're gonna like buy food and cook in some way anyway. And all of these ways are things that I can do, practices that I can follow to feel happy, to be happy every day, that are little to no cost and a major benefit. The 8th way to feel happy every day is by spending intentional time in meditation and prayer. Because one of the things that I've realized over the past year is that I can only do so much when I start to feel stuck or overwhelmed. This was a really big realization for me because in the past, if I felt stuck, it would just be like, try harder, do more. Or like, if I felt overwhelmed, be like, okay, well, I can work my way through this. When now I realize that I am burning myself out, I'm actually creating more anxiety. And when I can just spend time being quiet, I notice that again happiness goes up, anxiety goes down, and I just, just breathe better. So when I start to feel those symptoms of overwhelm or anxiety creep in, especially as it relates to work that I have to do, I'm getting much better at having a personal awareness of those moments and taking a step back saying, thanks but no thanks to my critical, overbearing, you know, part of the mind. And just taking a few minutes, maybe even taking 10 or 20 minutes, and just being quiet, being still, taking deep breaths. Speaking of deep breaths, the 9th way that I can feel happy every day is through breathwork. And for me, this is a little disconnected between meditation, prayer time, and breathwork time. Again, going back to the task versus time constraint. I'm not necessarily trying to hit any particular timeline when it comes to like, okay, well, I have to meditate for 20 minutes, then I have to do breathwork for 10 or 15 minutes. I'm just trying to go through the practice of each one because it's easy to be aware of your breath when you're meditating. What I'm trying to be more aware of is how I'm breathing in everyday moments. I noticed how much I would I almost hold my breath or not breathe very much while I was in a flow state creatively, as I'm maybe like working on one of these videos. You won't see it because we edit it out, but it's very often that I'll be like in between takes of videos. So I've been more aware and a better practitioner of just steady, deep belly breathing that has helped me be more connected, calm, and reduce my stress in everyday life situations. The 10th and final way to be happy every day for me is repeating mantras. And I dismissed mantras for a long time as kind of hokey, a little new agey, not quite for me. I'm gonna go out and do the thing. I'm not just gonna like think and talk about the thing. But it has been a big unlock for me when a coach started recommending, he's like, Matt, I want you to repeat the life that you want to be living, the kind of person that you want to be. I want you to speak it aloud every single day for a month and just see what happens. See how you feel. And despite my— it's still occasional, like, I don't know if this is really for me— it made a difference in the way that I think, the way that I approach each day with intention, to approach each day proactive instead of reactive, something that we talk about a lot in productivity. And it doesn't have to be this big, like, long speech to yourself. It can be short, centering phrases that remind me, this is the kind of person I am, this is the kind of person I'm becoming, and this is the kind of life that I want to live that's important to me. These 10 ways of being happy that I've gone over with you, these are all things that I can go over in a mantra. I am a person who enjoys exercising. I'm a person who is really intentional about the presence that I have around family and friends. Each one of these can be short centering statements that I make every single day that remind me who I am and who I'm becoming. I want to wrap up by reminding you about this concept of happy stacking. You've heard about habit stacking. Well, happy stacking is the process of combining lots of things together that make you happy. And so if I get to spend time outdoors, light exercise, with friends and family, cooking over a fire, and like just spending time together. Those are 4 or 5 things that I can combine that make for a really special moment and really increases my personal happiness. And so look for those moments and opportunities to stack your happy practices together. And I guarantee that you will be living a happier life. Because I want you to imagine spending each day doing things that make you happy with people that you love. Remember, it's easy for productive people to get caught in the to-do list and think that happiness is an achievement at the end of checking all the boxes. Over the past 2 years, I've seen personally how much of an inside job happiness is. It's a state of mind more than a top-of-the-mountain experience. Focusing on these simple, low-to-no-cost practices that I can do every single day to to find and experience happiness has made an immeasurable impact on my life, and I know that it can do the same for you. Thanks so much for watching this video, and I'd love to hear in the comments about what your happiness practices are. What are the ways that you find and experience happiness every single day? I'll talk to you in the comments, and I'll see you in the next video. Thanks. Bye. Mm-hmm.