Positive psychology expert Dr Timothy Sharp contemplates the secret to happiness

Everyone can have more happiness in their lives if they focus on the right things, says Dr Timothy Sharp, positive psychology expert and Chief Happiness Officer of The Happiness Institute .

Dr Sharp suggests seven things individuals can direct more focus toward, in order to boost their experience of happiness and other positive emotions.

More focus should be directed, he says, towards:

• meaningful goals
• real priorities rather than apparent urgencies
• living a healthy life
• what an individual has rather than what they do not have
• friends and other people
• innate strengths and positive attributes rather than weaknesses and limitation; and
• solutions rather than problems.

Individual happiness depends on an unlimited number of variables, he explains, which can include who a person is, what they do, where they come from and what their strengths are.

Happiness is effectively different things at different times, Dr Sharp concludes.

While clarity about priorities is important, the positive psychology expert also points to the ability to be flexible and open to spontaneity as a helpful trait.

Dr Sharp suggests individuals try to avoid thinking that the same thing will always work in every situation, and that maybe, flexibility in thinking could possibly be the secret to happiness.