Our mind is working all the time with two goals in sight: first is to minimise the pain and the second is to maximise the happiness. In its attempt to achieve its twin objectives, it is always moving back and forth in the three dimensions of time so that it can heal the pain and bring happiness to the present.

Your conscience is not only the repository of your failures but also of your successes. It contains your vileness as also your goodness. The more good deeds you have performed in the past, the more happiness will be at your disposal all the time. You can always borrow some of that happiness when you are feeling low.

It is not enough to only discover your potential. Your potential, at best, is like a rock from which the statue is yet to be carved. A rock of raw diamond can’t be used to make rings and the dust of gold is useless for all practical purposes. Only by honing your skill through hard work, you can develop your potential and achieve happiness and success in your life.

We start feeling uneasy as soon as the initial euphoria or happiness from our achievement fades away. We then raise the bar further so that we can strive more and achieve even higher success thereby deliberately making ourselves unhappy. However, our lifelong chase of success only gives us suffering and unhappiness.

Happiness requires love, being in a relationship, compassion, intimacy as well as freedom. Every relationship binds you with others, thereby reducing your freedom to some extent. There is no possibility of absolute freedom for man. However, it is possible to increase our freedom to maximise our happiness.

If you keep your pain within your heart, you stand the risk of creating a deep wound in it. And so you must be able to share your deepest pain with people who are very close to you. The very act of sharing it with them reduces its severity. Sharing the pain in public can magnify it 226 | 31 Ways to Happiness since numerous people will be talking about your pain.

One of the best ways to achieve happiness in life is to restrict your options. The more options you have, the more pain you may suffer. You can reduce your options by developing faith and genuine love.

Wealth is one of the most important sources of happiness. It becomes a source of pain only when we earn or spend it inappropriately.

There are millions of people in the modern world who have earned enough money to be able to live their lives comfortably without doing anything for a living. 228 | 31 Ways to Happiness Conquer Your Boredom | 229 However, most of them fail to live happily because they get bored if they do nothing. Many people don’t work for the sake of money. They work to avoid boredom.