To make the quickest progress, you don't have to take huge leaps. You just have to take baby steps-and keep on taking them. In Japan, they call this approach kaizen, which literally translates as 'continual improvement.' Using kaizen, great and lasting success is achieved through small, consistent steps. It turns out that slow and steady is the best way to overcome your resistance to change.

Most people think of love as an energy between two people, which it is, but it's not only that. When we think of love in those limited terms, we become what I call "love beggars." We walk around looking for love outside of ourselves. We'll go up to people as though we have a beggar's cup in our hands and look to them to fill up our cup.

So, in life we have a one question final exam - and it's not the kind of exam you can cram for at the very end. One of the main reasons we're alive is to expand our capacity to love.

If you're having a hard time being compassionate to or forgiving of yourself or others, you repeat these four phrases directed to yourself or the other person: "I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you." And just by saying and feeling those phrases, you will find your heart starts to melt.

I interviewed 100 happy people - I call them my Happy 100 - and I learned amazing ideas and techniques from them that I began integrating into my life. I put them into practice - and they worked! I went from a D+ in happiness to an A-.

The basis of all love is self-love and we certainly suffer a lot in our society from lack of self-love. When we don't take care of ourselves, it's really just a symptom of not loving ourselves. So the worst thing that we can do is to beat ourselves up for how we've already treated ourselves.

The problem for most of us is that the cup has holes, so love goes out just as easily as it goes in. What happens when people are living in the unconditional state of love, however, is that they recognize they are the ocean of love; they know it's their essence. And they naturally overflow in this love. So instead of being love beggars, they become love philanthropists.