1.If you add up money, beauty, fame, and admiration, you’ve got the formula for a lifetime of bliss, right? Wrong. The truth is, your financial status, external circumstances, and life events account for no more than 15 percent of your happiness quotient, studies show. What elements do make a difference? Surprisingly simple internal factors such as having healthy self-esteem, a sense of optimism and hope, gratifying relationships, and meaning and purpose in your life have the most influence, according to recent studies on what researchers call “subjective well-being” 2. If that sounds like a tall order, here’s the good news: Even if they don’t come naturally, many of the attitudes and thought patterns that influence happiness can be cultivated, which means you can boost your capacity for happiness today-and in the future. “Studies with twins reveal that happiness is somewhat like a person’s cholesterol level-it’s genetically influenced, but it’s also influenced by some factors that are under our control”, explains David Myers, Ph.D., a social psychologist at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and author of The Pursuit of Happiness (Harper Collins, 1993). In other words, while your genetically determined temperament has a fairly strong influence on your happiness quotient, you can nudge it upward with the attitudes and approaches you bring to your life. To develop a sunnier disposition, use the simple strategies outlined in this essay, and you’ll be on your way to a richer, more satisfying life, starting now! 3. Develop an upbeat attitude. No, you don’t want to become a Pollyanna who overlooks problems and thinks everything is peachy even when it isn’t. But you do want to consciously focus on what’s positive in your life because this can engender a sense of optimism and hope. And research has found that happy people are brimming with these key ingredients. In one study at Southern Methodist University in Dal