I used to be surprised at how many people really are not happy. Some people generally want more money, more fame, more love, more toys. They find it difficult to be satisfied with their life. Being happy happens between our ears, it is not something external to us.

I had a few hundred words written here about how and why we are not happy, but after I thought what I wrote for a few hours, I erased what I had written. What I had written was deceitful in some ways. Instead know that happiness is a choice almost without exception. We all want to be happy but we do not know what we really want to be happy. I believe what I have rewritten below will help most people find real happiness in their life.

If you want to be happy you have to work for it. Happiness is free, and easy to acquire, but you have to want happiness and want to pursue it. If you want to be happy, and you are not willing to work on being happy, nothing will change for you.

If you ever listened to, or remember a child’s on the spot bedtime prayer, you know how most of us pursue happiness. A child’s impromptu prayer goes something along the lines of, ‘….Mommy and Daddy, Sister Jean, Cousin Timmy, and our dog Spot. Oh, don’t forget my teacher, Aunt Erma, the ice cream man, and my best friend Pete. While you are listening, I need help with my school work tomorrow, and I do not know why I have to learn math….’

What can be expected from a mishmash of unfocused wants is about what arrives. The universe conspires to fulfill each of those requests to the best of its ability. The child’s prayer is a good example. What the child is saying is: “Take care of everyone important to me, I don’t want to learn math, and I did not do my homework.” The next day, the child does not learn anything about math, and the homework was never finished.

It is the same thing with wants in our life. We want an interesting job, we want to be able to make more money, we want to travel across the country. What we have is not enough, yet we are not sure what it is we do want. Many of us spend our life in this want, don’t want state.

And we wonder why we can not find happiness in our lives. What we really want in our lives are simple things. When those simple things show up, they are not good enough for us, and we reject them. Though if we slowed down and appreciated what the universe has done for us, we would find we have all we could ever want and need.

What you want in your life should be focused, if not, be open to many possibilities. If you want to have a lot of money, think about it where it is going to come from. Wanting a lot of money and finding yourself selling off your things for cash fills your want, but not in the way you expect.

Make sure what you want in your life is what you really want, not what someone else has. For example a person may think they want more people in their life, but what they really want are better relationships with the people already in their life.

If you are vague about what you want, be accepting of what shows up to fill your want. Some things you do not expect happen if rejected may reduce your opportunity to be happy. Happiness is not difficult, it is available for all of us. Having a new want list by the end of each and every day, makes it difficult for what you really want to enter into your life.