I believe that there are five pieces that fit together to make happiness an automatic result for you.

You can be successful in any one or two of these areas and still not be happy but if you are simultaneously successful in all five then your happiness is assured. Let's take a look at each of these pieces and why they are important.

Element 1: Time

Time is an amazing thing. Each second that ticks past is gone for ever and we will never have the opportunity to use that second again. Once our "time is up" as they say, our life is over and this magnificent opportunity has passed.

How you choose to use this limited time that you have is probably the most important decision that you ever have to make! Yet most people never give it a thought. They just let it trickle away and never really do anything of value with it. At the end of their day they discover that they have been just one of the "also rans".

The happiness secret of time is to use your time developing and following your passion.

Element 2: Money

Money is financial energy. It is what determines, to a large extend, the quantity and quality of the choices we have in life.

If you have a passive income sufficient to meet your desired lifestyle then you have the choice to have and do the things in life that you really want to have and do.

The reason why a passive, rather than an active, income source is desirable is that if you no longer need to work for your income, then you have the choice to work or not work as it pleases you. You also have the free time to pursue whatever passions you desire without having to find a way for them to produce a living for you.

Element 3: Relationships

Of all the relationships that you could have, romantic, family, personal, business or social, the most important relationship for you to master and develop is your relationship with yourself.

If you are truly content and at ease with yourself then it is easy to have good relationships with others. But if you have a poor relationship with yourself then all other relationships will be empty and unfulfilling, sooner or later.

Once you have mastered the relationship with yourself then there are many types of rewarding relationships that you can develop. Each of these can add something to your enjoyment of life.

Element 4: Health

When I talk about health I am referring to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of who you are.

By developing sound habits and lifestyles in each of these areas you can ensure that you can have a quality of life that you could never enjoy just from focusing on one or two of these aspects. We are not physical beings, or mental beings, or emotional beings or spiritual beings we are a combination of all of these and the healthier you are in that total combination, the easier it is for you to be happy.

Element 5: Personal Fulfillment

Personal fulfillment comes from setting and achieving challenges that are inspiring to you, particularly if those challenges also give you a sense that you are in some way enhancing the world and, in particular, the lives of those around you.

This is why we set goals. Not to get the physical outcome but to get that sense of fulfillment.

You can achieve success in all five elements that I have discussed here, and if you do, these pieces will neatly fit together to provide you automatically with a life of true and lasting happiness.