 When life gets tough, especially for a long period, it is hard to feel like happiness is within your reach. However, it is important to understand that life circumstances actually have little to do with happiness because much happiness is under your control. The product of your life habits and your outlook on life. Chronic unhappiness sometimes stems from the reputation of certain habits picked up during difficult times. In this video I will share with you 13 habits of chronically unhappy people. 1. They try to please everyone. Surprisingly, living to please others is a prime cause of unhappiness that is often seen alongside a refusal to trust. It makes your self-esteem conditional as you can't feel right unless others are responding positively to your attempts to please them. And it also prevents you from correctly identifying and addressing your own needs. Caring for yourself is not selfish. It is mandatory for happiness and helps to provide you with the resources to continue being empathetic and compassionate. When you try to please everybody, you only end up depriving yourself of things that you should have. Indeed, it is not out of place to make sacrifices for people, but sacrificing for everyone is detrimental to your happiness. And this is why as long as you are a people-pleaser, you can never be happy. 2. They hang out with other unhappy people. As the old saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. Chronically unhappy people tend to hang out with other sad people because another sad person will see life the same way that they do. And instead of offering them a better way, we'll support them and their attitude. They will validate their emotions and make them feel like being sad is the right thing to do. Well, as humans, we are naturally interested in those who are in support of our actions, good or bad. It takes discipline to be able to maintain relationships with people who are truthful to us regardless of the situation. Thus, chronically unhappy people have a tendency to enjoy the company of other sad people because they provide affirmation for their emotions. 3. They are hostile. Unhappy people are aggressive most of the time. In a recent study, 171 participants completed assessments of portrait hostility skills after the survey. It was revealed that hostility is a predictor of social strain. The researchers were also able to conclude that previous social anxiety predicted an elevated hostile mood. Additionally, the preceding aggressive attitude indicated subsequent social stress because they have become like sadists. Unhappy people like to rub their negative energy on others through aggressiveness. They will argue over unnecessary things just so that you will be in the same unhappy state as they are. So if you have that one person who is always unreceptive to people around, know that it is a result of chronic unhappiness. 4. They regret the past and worry about the future. Regret is not only useless, but it can also be incredibly harmful. Research continues to show that repetitive negative thoughts about decisions made in the past often predicts chronic stress and depression. Also, anxiety which often leads to sadness is a result of worrying too much about the future. The truth is that we only have so much to say about what our future holds. What we can do is leave in the present while fully exercising our god-giving abilities and talents. This enables and empowers us to leave a happier existence. Happy people enjoy the beautiful things in life and experience them fully being present. 5. They place much value on material things. Recent studies have revealed that people who are materialized are more likely to be unhappy. In this research, the association between materialism and life satisfaction was tested. It states that materialists find it harder to be grateful, which makes them unhappy. For some people, happiness is being able to afford the latest fashion and meet up with trends. It is only when they can meet up with having all the material things they desire that they can be happy. Such people have tied down their happiness and as long as the world evolves and new products are manufactured, they will keep chasing and can never be happy. 6. Eyeing other people's possessions. Jealousy and selfishness are unharmonious with happiness. One attitude which happy people have but unhappy people lack is commitment. In one study, most subjects said that they would be okay with making less money, but only if everybody else did too. Be wary of this kind of thinking as it won't make you happy. Instead, it leaves you chronically unhappy. 7. They blow things out of proportion. Bad things happen to everybody. The difference is that happy people see them for what they are, a temporary bummer. In contrast, unhappy people see anything negative as further evidence that life is out to get them. A happy person is upset if they have a fender bender on the way to work, but they keep things in perspective by thinking. What a hustle, but at least it wasn't more serious. An unhappy person, on the other hand, sees it as proof that the day, the week, the month, maybe even their whole life is doomed. 8. Sweeping problems under the rug. Happy people are accountable for their actions. When they make a mistake, they own it. Unhappy people, on the other hand, find problems and mistakes to be threatening, so they try to hide them. Problems tend to get bigger when they are ignored. The more you don't do anything about a problem, the more it starts to feel as though you can't do anything about it, and then you're right back to feeling like a defeated victim. 9. Behold grudges. Similar to other negative emotions, animosity is an unnecessary weight on our backs, where all witnesses to the negative behaviors of other people and can become sometimes justifiably angered as a result. But remember this, this isn't about their ignorant behavior, it is about your happiness. Either forgive, forget, or ignore, and move on with your life, or hold it back. Unhappy people have a hard time forgiving. They not only feel slighted or hurt by incidents that many others might brush off, but they also develop long unnecessary grudges against people. These grudges not only affect their relationships, but they also affect their emotional well-being. They don't realize that, when they refuse to forgive, they are hurting themselves much more than they are breaking the other person. 10. They worry so much about what people think of them. Undoubtedly, everyone cares about people's opinions about them, even though we don't like to admit it, but chronically unhappy people ruminate endlessly on the words or actions of people towards them. They care so much that they spend so much time and mental energy trying to figure out the meaning of every tiny issue. The truth is that, in life, not everyone will like you. Some people will even go as far as turning people who like you against you, but chronically unhappy people do not want to accept those facts, so they always worry that people don't like them. That makes them unhappy. 11. They are pessimistic I guess you know that suicide attempts reflect the ultimate melancholic state and extreme hopelessness, but do you know that this extreme hopelessness, which eventually becomes suicide thoughts and attempts, can be stared at by something like casual or negative thinking? Well, according to research, undue pessimism makes life miserable. The pessimist gives greater attention to the negative cues while forgetting the positive aspects of a situation. Furthermore, pessimists easily give up when faced with obstacles on the way toward the desired goal. According to the same research, pessimistic thoughts can lead to depression and suicide. Chronically unhappy people are pessimistic in nature. They never see the good in any situation, but are always so quick to predict the negative things. When someone always talks about the bad side of things, chances are that the person is chronically unhappy. 12. They complain a lot According to an article, complaining comes in numerous forms. The first type is called chronic complainers. They are people who never seem to be satisfied. The second one is called venting. It is the familiar expression of emotional dissatisfaction. However, the downside of complaining is that it can make the complainer and the people listening unhappy. It's normal to complain every once in a while. It's just a natural way to release a little steam when things don't go the way we expected. But unhappy people seem to complain all the time. They not only see the negative in every situation, but they like to talk about it, dwell on it, and make it the center of the conversation. Rather than learning how to let go of the situation and move on from it, they prefer to bring others into it and let it continue much longer than it needs to. 13. Isolate themselves When you feel down, it's tempting to avoid other people. However, staying away only makes matters worse. According to research, socializing, even when you don't enjoy it, is great for your mood. We all have those days when we just want to pull the covers over our heads and refuse to talk to anybody, but understand that the moment this becomes a tendency, it destroys your mood. Recognize when happiness is making you anti-social. Force yourself to get out there and mingle, and you'll notice the difference right away. Psychologists from the University of California who studied happiness and found that genetics of life circumstances only account for about 50% of a person's happiness. The rest is up to you and your habits. If you want to be happy, then you must identify and get rid of the above mentioned habits and replace them with other edifying ones.