Rick Warren's Blog, page 597

Happiness Habit: Look to the Needs of Others

The starting point for all happiness is shifting the focus away from yourself. If all you think about is yourself, you���re going to be a pretty miserable person. If you truly want to be happy in life, you have to care about the needs of those around you.

Happiness Habit: Give Your Life Away

Happiness comes from service and giving your life away. Until you understand this, you���re not going to be happy for much of your life. Happiness does not come from self-gratification. It comes from self-sacrifice.

Happiness Habit: Focus on Your Purpose, Not the Problem

When you stay focused on your purpose, not your problem, you can be happy even when life seems to be falling apart.

Paul was an old man when he was in prison in Rome. He was a long way from home. He was awaiting execution. Everything has been taken from him ��� his friends, his freedom, his ministry, even his privacy, with a guard chained to him 24 hours a day. It wasn���t exactly a happy time for Paul.

Happiness Habit: Make A Choice To Rejoice

When things are falling apart, don���t try to work it out yourself. Just let God put the pieces back together.

If you���re facing a problem, you���ve got two options: You can worship or you can worry. That���s it! This is what I call the faith factor.

You Don���t Need Someone���s Approval To Be Happy

You can be happy no matter what happens in your life if you don���t let others control your attitude.

In Philippians 1:15-17, Paul talks about four kinds of people who were affecting his ministry while he was in prison in Rome. There were some who he considered comrades and who encouraged him in his ministry. Others were criticizing, competing with, or conspiring against his ministry.

Happiness Habit: See God���s Bigger Picture

If you want to be a happy person, you need to look at every problem from God���s viewpoint. Happy people have a larger perspective. They see the big picture. When you don���t see things from God���s point of view, you get discouraged, frustrated, and unhappy.

Stress Management Starts in the Mind

The battle with stress in your life is going on between your ears. The battle is in your mind! It���s in your thought life. What you fill your mind with determines the level of stress in your life.

If you want peace of mind, you���re going to have to start controlling what you allow in it. Whatever you put in your mind is going to come out in your life.

God Always Provides. It���s Your Job To Ask

When I was a kid, any time I needed something, I���d go talk to my dad. Sometimes what I needed was expensive, but I remember that not once as a kid did I worry about where my father was going to get the money for whatever I needed. That wasn���t my job! It was my dad���s job to figure out where the money was going to come from. It was my job as a kid to simply ask.

Stress Management: Don���t Worry!

The number one source of stress in your life is not work. It���s worry. Work doesn���t keep you up at night; worry does.

God is very clear in the Bible what he thinks about worry. Philippians 4:6 says, ���Don���t worry about anything��� (NLT).

Want To Be Happy? Give Your Life Away

God wired the universe so that happiness does not come from status, salary, sex, or success.

Happiness comes from service. God designed you to be happiest when you are giving your life away. Why? Because he wants you to become like him. It���s all about love!