Some people just seem to be more cheerful and optimistic than others, don’t they? Are some people genetically predisposed to optimism and happiness than others? Is there a ‘happy gene’ or something? It is all our parents’ fault? Philip Larkin might have written ‘man hands on misery to man, it depends like a coastal shelf,’ but does that doom us to a life of negativity and pessimism? I think there are some steps we can take towards greater happiness.

Take control of yourself.

One of the greatest discoveries we can make about ourselves – perhaps the greatest discovery – is that we are in control. We can choose our reaction to what happens around us and we can change habituated reactions we have built up over the years. In Man’s Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl tells us that this ability to freely respond to our surroundings, even in the most adverse situations, is something that cannot be taken away from us. It is the most basic of human qualities.