1. Taking Life Too Seriously

Laughter is the best medicine. It has been proven to boost energy and strengthen your immune system.

We live in a world where sometimes it may be difficult to find something to laugh about. Sometimes, though, laughing isn’t what you need and talking through a situation so you’re able to move past it, or finding something to get your mind off of things can be just as rewarding. It is important to stop going through life on autopilot, checking things off as you go and just enjoy it.

Try this: Smile at someone everyday. When you laugh, don’t hold back.

2. Caring What Other People Think

Competing with others is the ultimate kryptonite of happiness. Trying to get everyone to like you is a full time job. Here’s a helpful tip, don’t bother applying.

Today with social media it seems like everything has become one big competition. Once you stop obsessively tallying your Instagram likes and worrying if the outfit you wore to the party last weekend made your crush fall madly in love with you, you will find that you have more time and energy to put into more important things.

Try This: Next time you go out with your friends, don’t post anything about it. Use your brain to make memories and just be present in the moment instead of trying to come up with the perfect caption.

3. Procrastinating

Don’t do it. Stop right now. I’m talking to you. Yeah you, the one stalking people on Facebook while watching Greys Anatomy on Netflix when you have an economics test tomorrow.

Procrastinating is a disease that every student has been a victim of at least once. Putting things off goes beyond schoolwork though. Waiting to write your paper until the night before can turn into something bigger like putting off the big trip to Europe or hanging out with friends because work is too busy or there’s always tomorrow…

Try This: At the beginning of the week or start of the day, make a ‘To Do’ list and HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE.

4. Stress

Stress is destructive. Often times an outcome of procrastination, it has the ability to steal your sleep, create unnecessary anxiety, and worst of all, it produces acne.

As someone who deals with stress and anxiety first, you’re not alone and second, there are so many ways now to prevent them as well as to work through them. Being stressed and anxious is like putting a wall between you and your happiness. In order to bring that wall down, you have to find ways to help your stress and anxiety levels that work specifically for you. Just because it works for someone else doesn’t mean it will for you.

Try This: Take a time-out. (Yoga, listening to music, or meditation) Take deep breathes and instead of striving for perfection, just do your best.

5. Doubting Your Self-Worth

In order to be fully open to love, and not just romantically, you need to love yourself first.

I know it can be extremely challenging to see past all the criticism that is thrown at you from every angle. Instead of letting everything get to you and keep you from appreciating who you are, you should CELEBRATE the fact that you’re different. You should love the fact that you think and dress differently. You deserve the best, whatever that may be. You are you and that should be more than enough.

Try This: For every negative thought you have about yourself; write down two positive things about yourself.

6. Letting Love Define You

Single. In a relationship. It’s complicated. Married. Divorced.

These are labels that society uses, but we are the ones who let them define us. When we’re single our goal is to be in a relationship and when we’re in a relationship our goal is to get the ring. Once we get the ring, it’s like we’ve made it, we can join the elusive club. Our profile pages even announce our status, placing us in the social hierarchy.

It has come to the point where, younger and younger we’re forced to question our worth when our boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with us or the marriage fails. What did I do wrong? What do they see in him/her that they didn’t have in me? We forget that we are more than our relationship status. Each of us is our own person. We have more to offer than handing our hearts to someone who may or may not deserve it.

Try This: Don’t post your relationship status and begin to reclaim the significance of it.

7. Being Afraid to Fail

What if you fall? Oh but what if you fly?

Failure is a part of life. It is a way to better understand and appreciate the hard work that went into each achievement. If you don’t know what it is like to fail then what does success really mean?

Before you can fail, you first need to jump. Take a leap into the unknown with the hope that maybe it will turn out. You’ll never meet new people, try new things, or have crazy stories to tell if you stay tangled in the bubble wrap of your comfort zone.

Try This: This week try one new food you’ve never had before and strike up a conversation with a classmate, stranger, or coworker.

8. Living with Negativity

Negativity is the antithesis of happiness.

If you have a friend or roommate who is always lugging around their negative energy, then adding another friend with the same tendencies won’t fix the problem. You need to abandon ship.

If you find that the negative energy you struggle with has more to do with you than your environment, it’s time to turn around your thinking. We often are our own worst enemy. We are overly critical and don’t give ourselves enough credit.

Try This: Begin to distance yourself from negative people and find others who share your same outlook. If you’ve become your own roadblock to happiness, try examining your thoughts and asking yourself what you would tell a friend if they were in the same situation.

9. Repeating Past Mistakes

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Everyone makes mistakes. No one is perfect. The important thing is that for every mistake you make, you learn something from it. Don’t go running back to what broke you. Don’t judge others for their faults unless you want them to do the same. Forgive yourself. Don’t hold grudges.

Your mistakes don’t define you. Sure, they’re a part of your history, your life story, but you are not your mistakes. You can’t rewrite the past but you can surely change the future.

Try This: Every time you feel as though you slipped up, made the wrong decision, or were wrong about someone or something, write down what you learned from it.

10. Pulling All-Nighters

Staying up all night seems to have become a college rite of passage, but if at all possible try to avoid it.

It’s bad for your health. Your feel terrible the next day and that recovery time can lead to stress and a reoccurring sleep problem. Being tired and grumpy certainly isn’t a step in the direction towards happiness.

Try This: Study for tests at least 2-3 days in advance. If you know you have to get up early the next day, take a rain check on the party.

DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY!