The concept of happiness seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life recently. I’ve noticed it with my friends, family, coworkers, and even just those random people I would meet throughout day. I started to notice that some of those people always seemed happier than others or other were just constantly negative about things that weren’t that big to be so angry about.

I’m sure we’ve all encountered those types people and always wonder, “Why does he always have something negative to say?” or “Is she ever not happy?” This year I really want to focus on being more positive and less dramatic or negative about the little things. So, it all made me start to think about what makes people happy, what doesn’t make people happy, why there are some people who are constantly angry at the world, and others who seem to never have a bad day in their life. We all say we want to live a happy life, but sometimes we just don’t seem all that happy about it. We start looking for ways we could be happy instead of the positive things that are already happening in our lives daily.

What I’ve come to realize is that perspective is a big key component when I’m going throughout my day. Would I rather go through my day having a horrible one, wondering why nothing is going right or would I rather try to find those small moments of happiness and the joy in them? I worked out today, I was able to work on an assignment and got ahead, I had an amazing lunch, and other things like that. I know it kind of sounds silly or stupid to be so happy about such little accomplishments, but after a couple of days I realized that I was happier and feeling more fulfilled with my week.

I really think that perspective is a key to happiness. Some people look from a point of view that everything is going wrong, and then there are those who have a positive outlook on life and seem to never be upset about anything. Sure, I understand that everyone’s perspective on things are changing all the time. There isn’t a way to magically change every emotion you have into a positive one. There are times of tragedy and sadness that are just unavoidable. After all, if there wasn’t sadness than we wouldn’t know the joys of happiness.

I know that I have days where I am happier than others and then I have those dreaded days where nothing seems to be going right. I’m a strong believer that everything happens for a reason and there are going to be negative things in my life. It’s inevitable. However, now I try my best to take a moment to think through my actions and the moments during my day and see if I can take it from a different, more positive perspective.