I often hear people say that they will be happy WHEN _________ happens. They say things like "I will be happy when I have more money" or "I will be happy when I get promoted" or "I will be happy when I find someone" or "I will be happy when this person stops treating me so poorly." The common denomenator here is that their happiness is dependent upon some outside circumstance. What they don't realize is that happiness has nothing to do with outside circumstances...happiness is simply a choice that we make every moment of the day.

Alright, so what is wrong with tying your happiness to some outside circumstance? There are a few problems from my perspective.  First of all, it makes it almost impossible for someone to be consistently happy. For example, a person who ties their happiness to their net worth, may be happy one day when their stocks are up, and miserable the next when the market drops. It makes for a very volitile emotional state. I personally believe that we were meant to be happy ALL of the time, not just some of the time when our arbitrary expectations are met.

The next problem I see is that people are rarely happy when these arbitrary expectations are actually met. It's a sliding scale...often the more people have, the more they spend, and the more they want. Let me clarify my point here. I am NOT saying that it is wrong in any way to desire more out of your life. Some people are against having things (material posessions)...I am not one of those people. Some people would say I am not spiritual because of this, and I would respond by saying, would you say the Dalai Lama isn't spiritual because he lives in abundance? You see part of spirituality in my opinion, is being in harmony with your world. I don't believe we get any spiritual points for suffering in any way. Ok, back to the point here. So, in my opinion, it's ok to want more, and to set your goals higher. The problem comes when you are never happy because your happiness is tied to your achievement of your goals.

The final problem is that if you link your happiness to your goals, your chances of achieving them drops significantly. Why is this? Wouldn't it be motivating? NO. People don't tend to want to do things that don't make them happy. In addition, when people aren't happy, they aren't as productive, and the quality of their work drops. Have you ever worked at a job you didn't like, so you could have money, so you could be happy? How happy were you? Probably not very. How well did you perform? Probably not optimally. It all comes back to the law of attraction. Your life will go wherever you put your attention. If you choose to be happy in this moment, your life will travel towards more happiness.

In the end, the quality of your life is basically the sum of your happiness in every moment. If we can stop merging our happiness with the circumstance in our lives, then it is absolutely possible for us to be happy right now. Ask yourself this question, "right now, in this moment, is there anything wrong?" Don't think about the past, and don't think about ANYTHING in the future. In this moment right now, while you are reading this, is there anything wrong? No, probably not. So be happy NOW, it will change your life forever!