Sure, my blog is a healthy living blog but healthy living goes WAY beyond just eating health and exercising. It’s important to have a positive, healthy mindset as well.
Yesterday I told you that I started reading “Creating Your Best Life,” by Caroline Adams Miller & Dr. Michael B. Frisch. I’m so excited to start this book up again and didn’t want to wait to share some of the insight with you.
Since Chapter 1 was basically just an introduction, I thought I’d start with a recap of Chapter 2. Chapter 2 is all about pinpointing the people who are happiest and specifying which traits these people have in common.
The part of this chapter I want to highlight is the section about the “Big Four.” The big four are the several difference ways to describe the qualities of happy people.
- Optimism – happy people tend to believe that they will experience happy outcomes and resolve problems faster than those people who think negatively.
- Self Confidence – happy people have confidence that stems from a high self-regard.
- Extroversion – happy people thrive on the energy that is created by interacting with others.
- Self-Efficacy – happy people not only set goals, but have a strong belief in themselves that they either have what it takes to get things done or can learn to do so.
Do I completely agree with the Big Four? Not entirely. I don’t think that you need to be necessarily extroverted to be happy. I know plenty of introverted people who are happy with life. That being said, the majority of happy people I know are optimistic, have self confidence and exude self-efficacy.
So you might be thinking to yourself, “Well, I never had self-confidence. Am I screwed?” Nope. The reason that the authors love this list so much is because the traits are not hard wired from birth – they can be cultivated. For instance one way to enhance your self-efficacy is by having role models.
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