This can be replaced with simple conversation about one's goals and dreams; it's just that most people usually don't have this conversation on a regular schedule. Which is a pity, because maybe at this moment some of my friends have a problem I could help solving, they just don't bother telling me about it, so I don't know.

Definitely, I should make an effort to have these conversations with my friends. I have yet to decide on any goals myself, but I would love to encourage my friends with their goals.

Gratitude journaling - see my reply to ChristianKI's comment. But yeah, it's a great tool that I've recommended to others who don't naturally "look on the bright side."

As for secular rituals - I am on the creepy side, but I think you're right that my feelings come from having been part of an organized religion. I look at secular rituals and they seem to have maybe 10% of cherry-picked Christianity's psychological pleasantness. So it looks like a pathetic substitute. But from your less biased perspective, things that can cause even a small increase in people's happiness can still totally be worth doing. Someone sent me this link about a secular "church" and it actually seemed pretty cool. I would probably even go. But I'd have to overcome the impulse to compare it to a real church, because they're very different things...