We’ve all been there. You embark on a new fitness adventure, fueled by a long pent up determination to make significant changes in your life—whether it’s to your appearance, your mental health, your energy levels or overall health. You start off feeling good. You’re finally doing something! And then, you get frustrated.

Your abs aren’t flattening. You’re not yet losing weight. Maybe you get self-conscious in a class surrounded by veteran gym-goers. Whatever it is, we’ve all done it: took a wrong turn in the aisle of body positivity, which is the acceptance of the skin you’re in and appreciation for the figure you’ve got. And that’s not good, because if you can’t break out of that slump quickly, you risk quitting altogether. (Did you know that out of the 45 percent of New Year's resolution makers each year, only 8 percent succeed?)

“Self-Love” – it’s the modern day buzz word of the mindfulness industry, yet when it comes to being truly self-loving, most people get it wrong. Modern day self-love has taken on various connotations that represent some form of treat-yo-self mixed with retail therapy, red wine and bubble baths that does little more than create another distraction that keeps us from truly dealing with our “stuff” so we can move forward towards all new levels of success.

Money.

I think we can all agree that “more money” is something we all, whether we’re willing to admit it or not, want in our businesses and our lives.

Typically when we’re looking to increase our income (whether in our business or in our personal accounts) we often look to typical business and career strategies to do so. We look for a new, higher paying job. We open a new location. Work longer hours. Increase or improve our marketing efforts. Attend more networking events. Ask for referrals…the list goes on and on.

We all have different goals in life, but when it comes down to it, we all just want to be happy. While there isn’t a perfect formula for bliss, there are a few habits you can incorporate to have a more positive outlook on life.

From prioritizing experiences and relationships to meditating, here are five things happy people always do.

We humans are really funny creatures.

We get these really amazing ideas that could change the world, change someone’s life, or even change our own life. 

But often times our ego, pride or fear stops us from moving forward with it. 

Consequently, we instead hold onto these ideas, thinking that the tighter we hold them, the more secure and safe they are from being stolen.

Money. Happiness. Success. Love. I think we can all agree that “more” is something we often find ourselves chasing, whether we’re willing to admit it or not, in our businesses, health, relationships and our lives in general. 

Typically when we’re looking to increase our income (whether in our business or in our personal accounts) we often look to typical business and career strategies to do so. We look for a new, higher paying job. We open a new location. Work longer hours. Increase or improve our marketing efforts. Attend more networking events. The list goes on and on.

Do you ever wonder why some people seem to hit every goal they set, while others struggle to even take the first step towards their goals? The difference may be in the finer details of how the goal is being set.

Communication, whether with ourselves or with others, is critical in today’s society. When we are setting goals, we are communicating our wants and desires with our unconscious mind. Yet despite the importance of being able to communicate effectively, rarely are we ever taught how to communicate or what the meaning of communication is.

When it comes to manifesting or creating a life that I desire, I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I’m pretty good at it.

Whether it’s finding and buying my dream car, transitioning from one business to another, or finding the money for a holiday I’d love to take—whatever it is, once I really feel in my body that I want it, I get it. And whenever I plan for the process to take a year or two, it happens within a week or two.

Have you ever looked back on your life and realized that you’ve had the same relationship over and over—and the only thing that changed was the person you were dating? 

If you’re like me, then the answer to this question is likely half “how did she know” and half “hell yes!” We’re also similar if when you take a closer look at this pattern, you see that this repeated relationship has gotten slightly worse and more painful with each subsequent partner.

I recently came across a video from one of Dove’s beauty campaigns.

In this video, women wrote down their negative self-talk in a journal, which was then given to actors to learn (unbeknownst to the women who wrote them). The Dove representative then took the women out to lunch, where the actors were sitting at the next table lunching with a friend.

Hey there,

I just want to start this letter by saying I get it—I’ve been there too.

In fact, for a number of years, I traded one narcissist for another—each one more charming and less obviously a narcissist than the last.

So, when I say that I can appreciate the damage and destruction they cause to someone, I really mean it.

While it's possible you grew up in an toxic environment, where your mom taught you unhealthy life lessons without caring about the impact they might have, it's also plausible that she had the best of intentions, and just didn't realize the impact these "lessons" might had on your self-esteem — or on your relationship with your body.

"I believe that everyone does their best with the knowledge and resources they have at the time," mental health coach Tiffany Toombs tells Bustle. "Especially with the amount of change between today’s generation and their parents ... moms simply didn’t know any better about the impact they were having on their child’s psyche." It could be your mom was just parroting things she'd learned from her mom, who adopted unhealthy ideas from her mom, and so on.

Now that we’ve settled into our New Year’s resolution routine (or not), we’ve been presented with a new opportunity to refresh our lives with new goals: Lent. The interesting thing about Lent is that it’s 40 days long — which, incidentally, is the same amount of time (give or take a week) that it takes to create new habits. This is the perfect time to think about what things you might want to give up in order to make your current relationship even stronger. Check out these habits experts say are worth breaking up with.

If a past relationship of yours ended on a bad note then you might notice that you still feel weighed down by the sadness that it didn't work out, or that you're still reliving the negative memories. That's what's known as relationship baggage, and it can carry quite the emotional weight.

Without even realizing it, you might be carrying around emotional baggage — even if it's been years since your breakup. So it's important to not only recognize that you're having difficulties letting go, but it's also a good idea to learn how to move past it so that it no longer weighs you down.