I’m too lazy to read this blog – can you sum it up in a nutshell?

It would be a shame if you found this blog and then didn’t bother to read all the nice words in it that I made up out of my brain. But, if you insist, this is essentially what it’s all about:

Figure out what makes you happy – do more of that

I admit it’s not rocket science, but in that case, why aren’t we all walking around with big annoying grins on our faces? In this blog, I shall attempt to help you work out why you’re not as happy as you could be (and I assume you’re not, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this) and how to make yourself happier without having to do anything too drastic like taking up a sport or adopting a macrobiotic diet (I’m assuming you’re a lazy person like me, more on that later)

Before we start, you probably need to know a bit more about me. Why do I feel qualified to tell other people how to be happy? Good question. And the answer is threefold: 1 – I’m a journalist. As a rule, we journalists think we know everything. In fact, we actually know a little bit about a lot of things. But happiness is something I’ve worked at, both personally and professionally, so I probably know a bit more than most people. And, as a journalist, I feel that entitles me to bang on about it at length.

2 – I used to be a pessimistic glass-half-empty type. I had a life-changing year in 1999, which I’m sure I will bore you with at some point, and managed to figure it all out. And since then, despite quite a lot of bad things happening in my life, I consider myself to be a quite annoyingly happy person, and my husband agrees, especially about the annoying part.

3 – Being happy is something I’ve studied hard to achieve, and I really feel I’ve come up with some useful methods of being cheerful even when life is hard and tedious. I’m also making happiness a core part of my business, particularly in the workplace – did you know you could be happy at work by the way? That was a new one on me, and it’s amazing, read on for that alone if nothing else – so I’ve decided the time is right for me to put all my thoughts on this blog, to see if there’s anything useful that might help.

So, let’s start with a quote, that’s always a good way to break the ice:

Some cause happiness wherever they go, some whenever they go

Oscar Wilde

Top tip: Read some Oscar Wilde. And some Douglas Adams. Or read this blog, as I will be quoting widely from both. Just think, you’re going to get culture as well as good advice, what an excellent discovery you’ve made, well done!