Looking for happiness? Give it to yourself!

Written By Jeffrey Gitomer
@GITOMER

KING OF SALES, The author of seventeen best-selling books including The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling, and The Little Gold Book of Yes! Attitude. His live coaching program, Sales Mastery, is available at gitomer.me.

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Looking for happiness? Give it to yourself!

Are you happy? Are you really happy? I mean are you happy on the inside? If you are one of the few who are, what do you do to sustain that happiness?

I’m happy. On the inside. Been studying happiness and positive attitude for

30 years-one day at a time. I have an office full of happy. Most everything in it is smiling or laughing or funny.

But I do have a few things that are death and destruction oriented to remind me of the “other side.” Unhappy things, like a copy of a Death of a Salesman, to remind me to change my “unhappy ways” as often as possible. If not, I’ll die penniless in the gutter like Willy Loman.

So 99 percent of my stuff is from the positive side of the fence like a picture of a comedian, a cartoon character, or something that reminds me (all day long) that smiling, laughing, and being happy is the most important part of my process.

I have 16 employees-and if I’m not happy, nobody here is happy. Happiness in any organization STARTS with the leader.

Did you ever have a boss who was a jerk? You know, never happy. Ever. What were you thinking? And how long did it take you to get out of there? And didn’t all the relief in the world come over you when you left that dump?

If you’re in a dump with a jerk for a boss, GET OUT NOW. Go away. Go someplace where you can be happy. And more important, create an atmosphere for yourself where happy is pervasive, because happy is transferable from other things and people to you. And to your wallet.

You are what you watch. Why are you watching violent things on TV when you can be watching happy and funny things? If you’re gonna watch something on TV, watch a

rerun of Seinfeld. It’s funny. A little cynical, but funny. Or at least watch something that makes you smile, like a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

I used to watch plenty of them. I’d wake up in the morning and watch Bugs Bunny. Everyone else is watching the news, but I’m watching Bugs Bunny. Telegram for Mr. Bugs Bunny. Telegram for Mr. Elmer Fudd. I’ve seen 850 out of the 1000 Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons. Maybe I’m nuts. But you know what? I’m happy nuts. And it’s way better to be happy nuts than unhappy nuts.

Many people will tell you to get a positive attitude, or that a positive attitude is essential for success. But very few tell you HOW to achieve one, so I will.

Here’s how:

I just gave you the first clue: Surround yourself with “happy.” Create a happy living space.

The second: Expose yourself to happy media like sitcoms and cartoons.

The third: Associate with happy people. Think about it. Why would you do it any other way?

The fourth: Work in a happy place. Happy boss. Happy coworkers. Happy customers. Don’t settle for two out of three.

And the inevitable 4.5, which is the most difficult: Respond happy. If someone gives you “unhappy,” you have to respond with a positive expression. Most people begin by telling you their problems, gripes, complaints, tragedies, and other tales of woe. You have to find the silver lining in the cloud, the pony in the barn full of manure, the pearl, the diamond, the glass slipper-you get it. The happy part.

MAJOR CLUE: Happiness is every day. You have to take some measure of action in each of these areas daily.

As I travel and observe, I find that MOST people ain’t happy-with their jobs or their life. And for the life of me, I can’t figure out why they don’t change their circumstances or their demeanor.

I am challenging you that you have an opportunity to be happy by simply surrounding yourself with happiness-but you’re not even taking advantage of that.

All you have to do is put happiness in front of your face on an every minute basis and surround yourself with happy people. That transfer will increase your happiness factor by ten, and you’ll automatically be at a more positive state of being.

Do that for a few years, and you might actually stay happy. You see, when you’re happy on the inside it never goes away.

Free GitBit: Want more ideas on humor? Ways you can use humor and become more humorous? It’s yours by going to www.Gitomer.com – register if you’re a first time user, and enter the word HUMOR in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, is now offering licensed training programs to corporations, as well as distributorships to individuals, based on his best-selling books and the TrainOne online learning series. This process is starting with his newest book The Patterson Principles of Selling. Jeffrey can be reached by phone: 704/333-1112 or e-mail: salesman@gitomer.com