For the past three weeks I have been taking a single class for a couple hours a day. While the classes offered vary greatly in content, The Skills of Happiness caught my eye. Curiosity arose; how and why would there be a college course dedicated to individual happiness? I found the answer rather quickly, and after completing the class, I would guarantee and recommend that the subject matter is essential for everyone to learn at some point throughout their lives...preferably sooner rather than later. I took away many insights from this class, and will hopefully continue to practice these skills in order to better myself and live a happy life each day.

1. Be Driven by Love Instead of Fear

Oftentimes, we are motivated by our fears. We work out so we don't gain weight instead of wanting to be healthy. We pull an all-nighter studying so we don't do badly in the class, rather than being interested from the start. We keep our thoughts to ourselves because we're afraid to speak up. You don't realize how prevalent fear is in your life until you start to realize the flip side of things. Be inspired; be passionate. Do something because you love it. When you're motivated by love, the result will be so much more positive in the end. Fear is the greatest enemy of happiness.

2. Strengthen Your Relationships

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."

These are most important in your life. Not only your relationships with others, but also with yourself. Strive to make a difference in every person's life you come in contact with, big or small. How do you want people to remember you? Give people "140 bits" of your attention; put your phone down, and make them your only focus. We often believe that being loved is one of the best feelings in the world, yet this is simply not true. It's the second best; the best is loving someone. Having love for others is your personal experience, and it can be powerful. You can't really feel someone else loving you; that's theirs.

3. Develop an Appreciation for What You Have

For others, for life, for just about everything. We take a lot of things for granted. Wake up and be glad you're alive. Say thank you's in your head each morning for three things you're grateful for. Once we start noticing and paying closer attention to all the blessings in our lives, we'll then be more likely to show it.

4. Know Your Purpose

Everyone has a purpose. You may not find it right away, but it's there. It's going to be a combination of what you love, your skills, and certain needs at the time. Set goals for yourself so you have something to strive for.

5. Avoid the Five Traps

First there's pleasure: doing something that makes you "happy" temporarily. A simple example: eating a large ice cream in the middle of your diet. At the moment you love it, but a couple hours later you're tearing yourself apart. Second, the money trap. Yes, money does make life easier, but only to some extent. The more your life is oriented around materialism, the less space there is for relationships. The now trap: easy, we want it now. We're not willing to give things time. Fourth, the when/if trap. Relying on other things to change your happiness. "I'll be happy once my husband treats me better." Lastly, the sympathy trap. Don't try to make others feel bad for you.

6. It's Time to Forgive and Forget

We often say we forgive someone, and even might think that we have. Yet oftentimes, we don't feel it, or we're still holding on to some sort of grudge from the past. Let it go. It's in the past. Forgive yourself and forgive others. Every hurtful event holds lessons: The more painful it is, the more lessons learned. Try to "dump the garbage" (let things totally go) every 48 hours.

7. Be Happy With Who You Are

In the end, you're always going to have yourself. This can be either your strongest or weakest relationship you encounter. Always build yourself up; if you don't, no one else will. Don't be hard on yourself. Talk to yourself how you would want others to talk to you. You look in the mirror and tell yourself you look fat, but if your friend told you that, you'd probably be extremely caught off guard and offended. In the end, you're usually the only one who notices and obsesses over your flaws. Build your self-esteem; don't break it.

Being happy isn't just a feeling, it's not temporary, and it doesn't always come easily. You need to focus and pay attention to the certain skills that are proven to help individuals achieve happiness. Usually if we're asked what we want in life the answer almost always is "to be happy." So start now. Why not? It's proven happy people live longer, anyway!