Richard Branson says “positivity is infectious, and something I always associate with our Virgin teams.” To promote more happiness in 2017, he asked some of the employees at Virgin about their “happy mantras” and picked a few to adopt in 2017 including:

• “Throw kindness around like confetti”
• “Happiness has a true sense of simplicity. Its root is not from what you own, but from what drives your soul and inspires your sense of belonging”
• “Don’t let the buggers grind you down”
• “The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.”

We’ll take those over what Branson said was his own (rather glib) mantra: “The way I see it, there’s a reason we’re called human beings and not human doings. As human beings we have the ability to think, move and communicate in a heightened way. We can cooperate, understand, reconcile and love, that’s what sets us apart from most other species. So in 2017, don’t forget the to-do list, but remember to write a to-be list too.”