Life can be tough – it can kick the breath out of you and leave you feeling sick and tired of your present situation and ready for a change – and making a change begins with a state of readiness.

“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”                     – Dalai Lama

If you want to make positive changes in your life, you have to be ready, and only you can decide when the time is right.

Are You Ready to Be Happy?

If you were to walk up to almost any unhappy person (if they were willing to talk, that is) and ask if they are ready to be happy, they would, of course, say yes, though they might follow the reply with a negative comment, such as – as if that could ever happen.

Very few people truly desire unhappiness, but people can get caught in cycles that recreate the same set of unhappy circumstances over and over, and it takes a lot to break out of one of those unhappy cycles.

What’s Holding You Back?

Feeling trapped, as if external forces are determining one’s happiness levels, is one thing that holds many people back, and blaming external forces gives an easy answer to a hard question, but not necessarily an accurate answer.

Self-improvement begins with being truly ready to take responsibility, to take control of your own life, and make things like low self-esteem, money problems, feeling lost and alone, exhaustion, weight problems, unhappy relationships, or lack of education a part of your past so you can live the life you want.

How to Be Happy With Your Life

When you are ready to move ahead with personal growth and make a change in how happy you are, there are several techniques you can try to see what works for you.

• Get rid of the things that complicate and clutter your life.
• Make time for peace and relaxation.
• Take command of your situation and release negativity that comes from feeling powerless.
• Don’ focus on blame, focus instead on what to do next to fix the situation.
• Own your feelings. Somethings in life are just sad or infuriating, or hurtful – pretending everything is okay is fake and falseness holds you back in life.
• Stop focusing on whether you are happy or not – focus instead on your goals, the steps you need to take to achieve them, and making sure you take those needed steps.

Taking care of your own needs and releasing past unhappiness is a form of self-compassion and positivity that can help you move ahead with personal growth.