Effective and Sure Ways to Stay Happy and Positive in 2021

You know what? Happiness is not something you’ll find at a corner in the street, along the journey. It’s an attitude you’ll take along for the journey.

Have you ever come across someone who just seems to stay happy and positive all the time? You begin to wonder if the person has ever experienced any difficulties or hard times in life.

Life surely is filled with ups and downs, but it always seems like no matter what is happening to these people, they stay happy and positive, ever-smiling. They tend to find the lustrous side of every trouble that comes to them. They are those who you would always find walking around with a smile so generous you would keep falling in love with them.

Whenever I’m around such people, I begin to wonder whether they were just born that way. Absolutely, you would agree with me that the answer is yes. Interestingly, so were you. Everybody is born happy and easy-going; or how many 3-year old children do you know who suffers from depression? None. Every young child is always looking for any excuse to laugh and titter.

So what happens to us? Being happy is fun. So why don’t we just stay happy and positive? An intriguing question, I guess. Generally, as we grow older, most people in the world start to move and settle into one of these two categories: those who choose to be happy, and those who choose to be unhappy. As too simple as that may likely sound when you look around at people, you may see that it holds pretty true.

There is this general notion that happiness comes from fortune, fame, or material possession. That’s not true. When we see cases of extremely wealthy people living in miserableness, we realize that happiness is rather determined more by our minds. It comes from within, not from what we have or do not have.

To be happy means to enjoy and show joy or pleasure and to be marked by good fortune. On the other hand, being positive is characterized by the acceptance or certainty towards something. To stay happy and positive requires both decision and discipline (such as helpful thinking and good habit) which can be learned and mastered, with practice.

This post is written to answer the question of how do I stay happy and positive? That being said, we are ready to explore and learn how to stay happy always.

Benefits of  Staying Happy and Positive

The experience of happiness and staying positive is a fantastic one. No wonder it’s easy to see why so many people want to be happy. It makes sense that we’d want to create more of that in our lives as we keep learning how to be happy and positive every day. But what about the reason for doing so beyond a nice feeling?

Research has shown that the desire and decision to stay happy and positive has far more benefits than just feeling good. Read on to find out more about the benefits of staying happy and positive.

1. Overall Healthier Lifestyle

One of the benefits of staying happy and positive is an overall healthier lifestyle. There is a popular saying that health is wealth. However, happiness has also been linked to several positive and good health habits that promote a greater sense of well being. This includes eating a healthy diet, exercise, engaging in more physical activities, and overcoming poor sleeping habits. All these help to enhance life longevity. It is believed that because of the impact happiness has on all of the above health habits, it can finally help one live a longer life. So, working on being happier is of great benefit to your health.

2. Happiness At Work
Lately, it is evident that there is a high semblance in the reach of benefits for happy employees, for both the individual and the organization. When we learn how to stay positive at work, we tend not to focus on the negatives, allowing more room to think about how to happily get on with challenges. This in turn allows for more positive results.

Have you ever entered an organization just to find workers all smiling and looking cheerful as they attend to all customers, even the difficult so-called ones? This is as a result of employees being happy themselves. Happier employees would result in improved customer relationships. When we feel happy, we’re more likely to express ourselves positively and want to help those around us.

3. Drives You to Do Your Best
Staying happy and positive aids you in identifying where your strength lies which in turn propels you to do your best. It helps you to know where your faults and weaknesses are to avoid problems. Similarly, it helps you to know where your strengths lie to be really happy and to succeed in life.

4. Boosts Productivity
Happy people are more creative and are better able to see the big picture. It enhances positive outcomes, greater productivity, higher quality of work, more activity, energy, and flow. When you notice an increase in the level at which someone is productive, it is as a result of the benefits of staying happy and positive. Although we all can and should endeavor to improve in areas where we’re weak. There’s just as much, if not more, to be gained from focusing on the maximal utilization of our strengths (including all your positive qualities and attributes).

5. Happiness Creates Success
Happy individuals, according to studies are believed to be successful across multiple spheres of life. Happiness is associated with and comes before numerous successful outcomes.
Also, staying happy and positive increases one’s confidence, optimism, and self-efficacy. Active involvement is encouraged, with the pursuit of goals and with the environment. Happy people have past skills and resources, which they have built over time during previous pleasant moods. They use these skills and resources for future ground-breaking activities that in turn result in massive success.

How to Stay Positive During Difficult Times

How many times have you heard a friend, colleague, spouse, or acquittance say, “be happy be positive” when you are feeling down and frustrated because you are passing through a hard or difficult time? It is usually the last and most annoying thing you want to hear at such a moment; but it could be the best thing you could do for both your physical and emotional health.

There is no greater joy in life than being positive. A positive and happy person stays, joyful, healthy, and achieves successful results, even during difficult times.

Studies affirm that positive people can experience an increase in life span, reduced level of stress and depression, better overall well being, reduced risk of death from heart diseases, and better contending skills during times of hardships and challenges. Staying positive in a negative situation will help you live longer, happier, and more successful; And who wouldn’t want that!

To stay happy and positive, you need to learn how to stay positive in difficult times because difficult times cannot be completely avoided. And this depends on building a positive attitude which is the inclination to generally be in an optimistic, hopeful state of mind.

People with a positive attitude are optimistic and always believe they are accountable for good things and those good things will mostly come their way. If something bad comes instead, optimists would write it off as something out of their control and won’t stop believing that the future will be better.

Maintaining a positive attitude is an act, and it takes practice. If your first thoughts about something that is to happen or that has happened are always negative, take the first step towards a positive attitude by simply acknowledging your thoughts as negative while trying to create a more positive thought. YOU OWN YOUR THOUGHTS, THEREFORE KEEP THEM UNDER YOUR CONTROL. Develop the habit of changing every single negative thought to a positive one.

That being said, look out for these:

7 Tips For Staying Positive

1. Always Expect The Best In a Negative Situation
Whenever you are in what appears like a negative situation, ask yourself these two questions: What is one thing that is positive or good about this situation? Secondly, What is one opportunity amidst this situation? Asking yourself these two questions gives you a bit of time to process your thoughts and feelings that may arise in such situations, thereby increasing your means to let out the negative vibes and giving you more optimistic thinking. This is one of the simplest but most efficient ways to build a positive outlook.

2. Never Forget That You Control Your Attitude
Attitude does not come forth from what happens to you, but instead from how you make up your mind to make sense of what happens to you. For instance, receiving the unexpected gift of an old motorcycle.

One person might think: “It’s a piece of junk!” a second might think: “It’s cheap transportation, and a third might think: “It’s a real classic!”. In each case, the person is deciding how to interpret the event and therefore controlling how he or she feels about it. That is attitude. It is your attitude, not your aptitude that determines your altitude.

3. Encircle Yourself With Positive People
The people around you have a huge effect on you. They impact who you are, how much money you will make, and what you value. They also affect how you think. If you surround yourself with negative people you will be negative as well, it can’t be helped. Hearing negativity all day leads you to be negative. You definitely don’t want that.

The opposite is also true. Surround yourself with positive people and you will be more positive and smile more often. Various studies have shown that even a forced smile can lift one’s mood! We may also share positivity with others by flashing them with a brilliant smile. Smiling is a reward, not a risk. The only thing we risk when smiling is blessing ourselves with a little more happiness.

4. Don’t Lose View Even If You Are Stressed
During difficult times, a molehill can become a big and frightening mountain in your mind, and so it is very easy to lose view especially if you are stressed and you are going too fast. Even in such situations, it is important to see the need for how to stay happy when depressed. In your mind, shout “STOP”, we are not going down that path again” as soon as thoughts of this kind start to spin in your heart. After shouting “stop”, breath with your belly and focus on just your in-breaths and out-breaths to calm your mind and body down.

Then refocus your thoughts by talking to someone close to you, getting a more grounded perspective on the situation. If it won’t matter in 5 years, or even 5 weeks, why bother allowing it to spoil your present?

5. Be Thankful
Take some time and be thankful. Be thankful for who you are, what you have, and what your life is like. Think through all of the things that you can be thankful for. Even if you are in a tough time in life there are many things you have that you can be thankful for. You need to look for them and recognize them. The very act of paying attention to what you are thankful for will help you maintain your positive attitude.

6. Be of Value and Add Positivity to Someone’s Life
What you send out to the world matters greatly as you tend to get it back. Not from everyone and not always but most times. Also, think about the way you treat others, and value them tend to have a big effect on how you treat, think about, and value yourself. Therefore, give value and spread the positivity by, helping out: lend a hand on your way out, give a friend a ride in your car, help him or her check out for information from google or your friend.

Listen. Sometimes, people just need somebody to talk to. Be fully there and listen as they vent for a little while. Lift their mood when you can. Encourage someone when they have had a tough day. Give hugs when suitable. Recommend movies or music for a friend. Perhaps, all that person needs might be a sweet text message for a good morning.

7. Undefined Fear Shouldn’t Hold You Back From Doing What You Want
Sometimes, just to stay happy and positive, you may want to take a chance in life. It could be, trying to start a new habit that seems new, establishing a business, or asking someone out for a date. Whatever it might be, one common trap usually encountered when you want to take a step towards realizing your heart desires and goals is to be hit by an “undefined fears” about you failing to accomplish such desires.

Instead of falling into this trap, find clarity by asking yourself this question, WHAT IS THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? Over the years, I have discovered that the worst that could really happen is not as terrible as the nightmare our fear-fueled mind could produce. Finding clarity would help you step outside, get going, take that chance, and get it done.

How to Stay Positive and Grateful

We all have many choices in life one of which is whether to focus on all the things we don’t have (of which they might be numerous) or to focus on all the things we do have. There is no doubt, gratitude and appreciation increase our chances of experiencing happiness and positivity. It is crucial to learn how to stay positive and grateful by utilizing what we have in our hands and making use of it judiciously.

There are a few ways to stay happy and positive by learning the steps on how to be positive and grateful. Let’s check into some of these.

1. See Problems As Opportunities
Grateful people don’t seem to have the word “problem” in their vocabulary. Apparently, they know what it means but they quickly interpret it as “opportunity” or “challenge”.

A problem is seen as a drawback, struggle, or a cause for failure. It only connotes negativity. But an “opportunity” is viewed as something positive, like a task, or a dare. This kind of perspective will help you learn how to be positive and grateful. Moreso, it makes you thankful at all times for such opportunities coming your way.

Your attitude about solving the situation would be totally different. You remain grateful for the opportunity to grow, learn, and be better.

2. Express It
You will have a deeper sense of happiness if you count your blessings instead of just seeing them as rights and privileges, or craving for what you don’t have. Express gratitude for every little thing that comes to your path. Make it a habit. It has nothing to do with your external condition, rather gratitude has everything to do with your internal attitude. It has a whole lot with helping you to stay happy and positive.

Next time, when the feeling of wanting more ‘stuff’ comes to you, bring out a paper and a pen, start to list out everything around you that you think you should be grateful for. You will understand how truly blessed you are.

3. Meditate and Pray
Meditation and prayer help your mind to be quiet, find inner peace, and connect to God. One who would not seek God finds it difficult to give thanks. There is no way you will meditate and pray that you won’t have to be grateful for the things you have, and the people around you. Giving thanks through prayers enhances you on how to stay positive and energetic.

1 Timothy 2:1 says, “I exhort therefore that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men”. Make it your daily routine to sit quietly to meditate and pray. As you continue to do this, it becomes easier and a part of you, resulting in happiness. Learn how to stay positive and grateful.

4. Accept What Can’t Be Changed
You have to accept what cannot be changed just to stay happy and positive. Once you accept the fact that life’s unfair, you’ll be more at peace with yourself. Instead of obsessing over how unfair life is, just focus on what you can control and change it for the better.

The only things we can control are things inside us, and how to be a more cheerful person. We can’t control the world events, disasters, or actions of others, but we can control how we react to them and feel about them. Happy people decide to be happy, they don’t wait for the world to produce happy circumstances for them.

5. Say No To Self Justification
Thankful people don’t make excuses or blame others for their own failures or misfortunes in life. Self-justification can grow into a very damaging habit. It is annoying and discouraging to be around people who always think nothing is ever their fault.

In life, the people who perpetually improve and attain success are those who are answerable to all their failures and all of their successes. They tend to be more thankful and subsequently try to be better.

How to Be A Positive Thinker

Too many people are completely frustrated by the everyday trials of life. They go battling and venting through their day with a sense of blunt bitterness at what they consider the “bad breaks” life has given them. They do this so much that they entirely forgot how to be a positive thinker.

In a sense, there may be such things as “the uglies” in this life, but there is also a spirit and way by which we can control and even check those breaks. It is sad to see that people would let themselves be defeated by the problems, cares, and hardships of human existence, and it is also quite unneeded.

Learning how to be a positive thinker means to learn to be more mindful and aware of what’s more to life. Whether it’s on our walk to work, the way we eat, or in our relationships. Here are a few ways on how to be a positive thinker.

1. Begin Each Day With Positive Assertion
How you begin the morning sets the feel for the whole day. Have you ever gotten out of bed late, panicked, and then felt like nothing good happened the rest of the day? It is probably because you started out the day with a negative mindset and a pessimistic view.

That view, you carried into every other event you experienced and it ultimately spoiled what you could have called a nice day. Instead of letting this rule you, find how to be a positive thinker. As you think it, talk it out aloud. Statements like, “Today will be a good day” or “I’m going to be awesome today”. You’ll be thrilled by how much your day improves.

2. Believe In Yourself
Have faith in what you are capable of doing! Without humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy, but with sound self-confidence, you can make it.

A sense of being inferior and not being enough stumbles with the achievement of your hopes, but self-confidence leads to self-realization and successful realization of goals. Because of the importance of this mental attitude, learning how to be a positive thinker will help you believe in yourself and release your inner powers.

However, to build-up feelings of self-confidence, the practice of suggesting confidence concepts to your mind is very effective. If your mind is obsessed with thoughts of insecurity and inadequacy, it is, of course, because such ideas have dominated your thinking over a long time.

3. Pay Attention to Every Good Thing No Matter How Small
Almost constantly, you’re going to encounter hurdles throughout the day—there is no such thing as a perfect day. When you are faced with such a challenge, focus on the benefits, no matter how slight or unimportant they may seem.

For example, if you get stuck in traffic, think about how you now have time to listen to the rest of your favorite music and to reply to all your outstanding chats. If the store is out of the food you want to prepare, think about the excitement of trying something new. It’s a matter of perspective.

4. Find Positive Friends, Mentors, and Co-workers
When you surround yourself with positive people, they will teach and show you how to be a positive thinker. You’ll hear positive outlooks, positive stories, and positive statements. Their positive words will sink in and affect your line of thinking, which then affects your words and similarly contributes to staying positive.

Finding positive people to fill up your life isn’t hard, but you need to kill the negativity in your life before it affects you negatively. Do what you can to enhance the positivity of others, and let their positivity similarly affect you.

5. Stay In The Moment

I am talking about the present—not today, not this hour, only this exact moment. You might be getting chewed out by your boss, just stay happy and positive. What in this exact moment is happening that is so unbearable? Forget the comment he made three minutes ago. Forget what he might say three minutes from now.

Focus on this one, individual moment. In most circumstances, you’ll find it’s not as bad as you thought it would be. Most thought of negativity comes from a memory of a recent event or the hyperbolized imagination of a possible future event. Stay in the present moment.

Staying Positive Quotes

Here are some everyday positive quotes that I’ve rounded up because I found them inspiring and they could be of help to remind us daily that we can get through every difficult situation and truly stay happy and positive.

Try to Be Positive Quotes

#1. Not all storms come to break up your life, some come to clear your path.

#2. Little by little, day by day, what is meant for you will find it way.

#3. Focus on the good and the good gets better.

#4. You’re bigger than what is making you anxious.

#5. If you stumble, make it part of the dance.

#6. Don’t forget that you’re human. It’s okay to have a meltdown. Just don’t unpack and live
there. Cry it out and then refocus on where you’re headed.

#7. Bad vibes don’t go with your outfit.

#8. Was it a bad day? Or was it a bad five minutes that you milked all day?

#9. Stay strong, make them wonder how you handled it.

#10. Its time to just be happy. Being angry, sad, and overthinking isn’t worth it anymore. Just
let things flow. Be positive.

#11. Never underestimate the power of your contribution. Act as though it’s making a lot of difference; because it does.

#12. You are what you believe.

#13. If you position yourself at the positive, you get the positive.

#14. Each day is new and fresh. You can make the most of each one.

Stay Happy Always Quotes

#15. Happiness is central to growth. It is beyond mere enjoyment or brief emotions but an optimum state of being.

#16. Happiness lies in showing gratitude. Appreciate the little things you have.

#17. No matter how dark the night seems to be, it will soon end, and no matter how far the sun seem to be, it will rise.

#18. Smile, it won’t cost you much.

#19. Celebrate the little wins. Waiting for the big-win is postponing your happiness.

#20. Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen- that stillness becomes a radiance. Morgan Freeman

#21. Be simply satisfied to be you, don’t compare or compete with anyone. You only have one life, live, and be happy.

#22. It isn’t your position that makes you happy or unhappy; it’s your disposition.

#23. Be happy yourself. If others don’t like it, then let them be. Happiness is a choice. Life isn’t about pleasing everybody.

#24. Learn to love yourself first, instead of loving the idea of other people loving you.

#25. True happiness can be found only in obedience or submission to God’s word.

#26. Happiness is not something you stumble upon by accident.

#27. when you count your blessings without counting your problems, you are on your way to
divine happiness.

#28. In God’s recipe for happiness, prayer is a vital condiment.

As I round up on this long post, Abraham Lincoln said, “People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be”.

I have found that quote to be true over and over again as I have met people who just stay happy and positive no matter what life offers to them. Although we are all born happy, remaining happy takes some effort and drive. Any new skill takes some time and effort to develop, but over time it becomes natural to us and we do it without even thinking.

Happiness is a skill to be learned, performed over and over again, and can be mastered. A good way to start turning these principles into habits is to focus on just 1 or 2 a week. Write it down on a paper and post it in a place you will see it a number of times a day. It will surprise you how much happiness and success you can feel by just taking that one step.

After all, is said and done, the best way to be happy is just, deciding to stay happy and positive. Make happiness a habit that works for you. Stay positive stay happy.