It’s too easy to forget that these can be the best times of our lives… if we let them be. To that end, I found a few secrets (stashed away where no one could ever think to look for them… on the internet!)

Maybe there’s something here for you to brighten your day? I hope so…

1. Happiness is making others happy
Like Oscar Wilde said: “Some cause happiness wherever they go; some whenever they go.”

2. Happiness is doing what you love (even if you’re not doing it)
“Success is getting what you want,” says Warren Buffett. “Happiness is wanting what you get.”

3. Happiness is a few Cheerios
From Anna Quindlen’s “A Short Guide to A Happy Life:” “Get a life in which you pay attention to the baby as she scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger. Turn off the cell phone. Turn off your regular phone, for that matter. Keep still. Be present. Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you.”

4. Happiness is getting lost in whatever you’re doing
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says: “Isn’t it funny? I’ve been studying happiness for at least 40 years, but I still don’t have a definition of it. The closest one would be that happiness is the state of mind in which one does not desire to be in any other state. Being deeply involved in the moment, we do not have the opportunity to think about anything but the task at hand — hence, by default, we are happy.”

5. Happiness is faking it so good you really are happy
In “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior,” Socrates tells his young disciple: “A fool is ‘happy’ when his cravings are satisfied. A warrior is happy without reason. That’s what makes happiness the ultimate discipline … This is the final task I will ever give you, and it goes on forever. Act happy, feel happy, be happy, without a reason in the world. Then you can love, and do what you will.”

6. Happiness is knowing when ‘enough is enough’
Thich Nhat Hanh says: “The Buddha says happiness can only be possible in the here and now, so go back and examine deeply your notions and ideas of happiness. You may recognize that the conditions of happiness that are already there in your life are enough. Then happiness will be instantly yours.”

9. Happiness is not being attached to money and stuff
Remember Henry Miller’s famous opening line in “Tropic of Cancer:” “I have no money, no resources, no hopes, I am the happiest man alive.”

10. Happiness is spending less than you earn
Charles Dickens’ famous formula: “Annual income, 20 pounds; annual expenditure, 19 pounds; result happiness. Annual income, 20 pounds; annual expenditure, 21 pounds; result misery.”

11. Happiness is doing what you really love
“Why is it that only a minority of our population love their work? …. If you make one major decision correctly,” says Thomas Stanley in “The Millionaire Mind,” “if you are creative enough to select the ideal vocation, you can win, win big-time. The really brilliant multimillionaires are those who selected a vocation they love.”

12. Happiness is being of service
In “The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success,” Deepak Chopra says: “Everyone has a purpose in life, a unique gift of special talent to give others … ask yourself, ‘How am I best suited to serve humanity?’ Answer that question and put it into practice. Discover your divinity, find your unique talent, serve humanity with it, and you can generate all the wealth you want.”

Hope something here sparks a feeling of warmth for you.