Book Summary Preview :You Can Choose to be Happy

The "Choose to be Happy" self-development plan

1. Make Happiness for Self and Others a Top Goal

According to Stevens, you can actually control your emotions the way you can control your fingers when typing a word. It is possible for you to develop an inner power to master your emotions and control your happiness.
The first step is simply to choose to be happy. Whatever you do, or whatever situation you are in, just always make that conscious effort and choose to be happy. Make it part of your commitment to take responsibility for your happiness from now on.

If you have practiced the commitment to be happy, you can now begin your quest to happiness. There are two routes that you can choose from:

• External Routes. “External routes to happiness include any actions that utilize our external environment to contribute to your happiness.” It is simply the day-to-day things that you do like talking with loved ones, taking a nap, watching tv or playing golf. The key: make sure that whatever you do contributes to your happiness.
• Internal Routes. Have a positive inner world within yourself to help you overcome the terrible external conditions you are in. Develop that inner life that is bountiful, peaceful and happy. In short, create fantasies, tap your imagination. Be a dreamer. Create a mental image that is far better than what you see in the external world.

You may explore either routes to your road to happiness. Just stick to your commitment to be happy and start living a fulfilled life.

1. Learn How to Find and Solve Deep Causes of Unhappiness

As a child, you have been opened and raised to some dysfunctional beliefs that you gotten accustomed to as you grow up. These beliefs got to the core of your underlying fears of failure and punishment. Some of these dysfunctional beliefs that mostly cause your unhappiness are as follows:

• "I should always put other people's needs before my own."
• "I should be loved or liked by everyone I meet."
• "I am weak and dependent on strong people for my happiness."
• "I must be the best at everything I do."
• "I am entitled to health and happiness, and other people should meet my needs."
• "We must run our lives by rules, and people who break those rules must be severely punished or we will have chaos."
• "There are winners and losers. If you are not strong and take advantage of others before they take advantage of you, then you will be a loser."

To counter this dysfunctional beliefs that have left you unhappy and unproductive, the author provided a commitment statement, the new beliefs that should the foundation of your Higher Self. Actualize and recite this commitment with your heart and break free from the dysfunctional beliefs that have left you crippled all this time.

Your Commitment:I Choose Love, Truth, & Happiness-- Loving Myself, Loving Others, and Loving All Creation

• I am grateful for the gift of life. I was given the gift of life and the opportunity to create a happy life for myself.
• I am the person most responsible for meeting my own needs and values. I cannot prove that my feelings are important, I can only assert that they are important to me because I am the one affected by them.
• My ultimate concern is maximizing my own and others' happiness and contributing to the good of the universe. All other values or goals are less important than this ultimate concern.
• Part of my ultimate concern is to always seek truth and growth for myself and others. My mind was designed to seek the truth and continually grow in knowledge. Without truth and growth I cannot be maximally happy.
• I care about every cell, system, and value in myself. Every cell and every system in my body and mind is important to my overall functioning, health, and happiness, and I care for each one.
• I will take good care of every area of my life (and encourage others to do likewise) including:
  • My Higher Self and spiritual needs. I will continue to develop the part of me that loves life, myself, and others
  • My relationships with others. I will seek win-win relationships with others and realize that each of us is primarily responsible for our own happiness.
  • My relationship to nature, beauty, and my environment.
  • My body, health, and safety.
  • My mind, learning, and growth in each area of knowledge.
  • My emotions. To obtain happiness I must resolve inner conflicts and feel good about my current and future satisfaction of values in each life area.
  • My material and financial needs.
  • My education and career.
  • My play and personal activities. I will set priorities for my free time that produce the greatest happiness (and is not based on "shoulds").