There are two important skills to achieve and sustain happiness in life – life appreciation and result authorization.

Life appreciation is the ability to value life in all its forms, not just the pleasant ones.

For example, it’s easy to be delighted by a beautiful sunset but it’s hard to appreciate that your body is telling you to stop by making you ill.

While everyone else has five senses, my sense of smell is broken. I don’t like it, and I’m not going to be thrilled about it. But I will appreciate the senses I have left.

Appreciate that your failed project taught you what not to do, gave you valuable experience. Appreciate you’re human being and you make mistakes. Appreciate the delicious food you’re eating. Appreciate your thoughts that make you human.

Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor and one of the main Stoic philosophers, wrote in his Meditations: “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

You shouldn’t force yourself to be happy when you’re sad. Sadness is an emotion too and it’s powerful. Don’t appreciate that you’re sad, appreciate that you’re alive and can feel the full range of emotions. And check for signs of depression – I’m talking about healthy feelings, not illness.

Result authorization is when you finish something and actually acknowledge it. You don’t just cross it off the list and run to the next task. You spend a minute or more recognizing it’s complete. You tell yourself: “This is done. I did this.” You can do it at the end of the day, but it’s more practical to do it right after finishing each task.

Without this step, your brain doesn’t get closure. The result loses meaning and becomes just another thing you did.

And again, it’s easy to authorize big results – when many people are involved and everyone celebrates together. Authorize small results too. Authorize a day full of calls with no “real work". Authorize when you’re stuck on a problem for hours but tried many approaches (and write down the solution for future self and maybe share it with others).

Authorize semi-results – most results can’t be achieved in one step. Get one of many documents needed for application – good. Make a call and now you understand your next task more clearly – yeah, that’s it. Authorize it too.

Celebration matters here. Just like you reward yourself when building habits, you should celebrate results.

Both these skills take time. You can’t “learn” them once and be done. You can only get better each time you practice.

Some days you’ll nail it. Other days you’ll forget entirely. Appreciate you’re a human being and sometimes you notice, sometimes you make mistakes. Authorize what you’ve done today and move forward. And don’t forget to rest.