I’m not an expert on happiness. If anything I’m an expert on being miserable. If I look back on my adult life, the amount of time I’ve spent miserable has been magnitudes greater than the amount of time I’ve spent happy.

And yet here I am, happy.

So I’ll give credit where credit’s due: Prof. Martin Seligman, the inventor of positive psychology, on whose ideas I’m shamelessly piggybacking. According to Seligman there are only three ways to become happy:

1. Living the pleasant life.
2. Living the good life.
3. Living the meaningful life.

Here’s his short (23 minute) TED presentation on the subject (there’s quite a lot more to his research but this is a good starting point). (more…)