How I did it: I previously thought of happiness as being something that happens to you. I am now more inclined to think that you make your own happiness happen. You can't wait for someone else to make you happy, you have to go out and do it yourself.

For me, the quote that helped me out the most was from Albert Einstein. He said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

If you wake up with the same crappy job, the same crappy attitude, and keep doing the things that make you miserable, you can't wonder why you're unhappy. You're doing it to yourself.

So how did I make myself happy? I first abolished the things from my life which cause me unhappiness. Namely, I found a new job. My job was a great source of unhappiness and stress in my life and getting it and the people associated with it out of my life, made me feel hugely relieved.

I noticed that the frantic-ness of my life was caused by a lack of organization and cleanliness in my home. Every day I would wake up and be like "oh crap, I don't have clothes clean for work.. I don't know where my keys are.. where are my glasses?" Now the night BEFORE I have to do something, I make sure I have everything I need for the next day. I set myself up for success, even so much as to making sure I have something to eat the next morning for breakfast.

I deleted from Facebook all the people who I was "friends" with but whose statuses only brought drama and negativity into my life. A good way to gauge whether or not a person should be in your life in order to be happy: Do you like the person YOU are when you spend time with them? If not, get rid of 'em.

I replaced all of the negative things in my life with positive. I got a new job as a server at a restaurant, which may or may not pay as much as my job as a manager, but I think NOT being the person in charge working forty and fifty hours a week is going to be a GREAT change of pace.

I am slowly getting into the habit of making organization a part of my life. It feels great to finally feel some measure of control over my apartment and how I spend my time.

I am working on making new friends, friends who bring out the best in me instead of the worst.

What I guess I'm trying to say is: quit waking up every day and doing the same thing and wonder why you're unhappy. Change SOMETHING until your life feels right for you. You'll thank yourself for the effort.

Lessons & tips: You can't complain about being unhappy and be comfortable with the status quo at the same time. Some people LOVE to be unhappy, to complain and bitch about every little thing. Recognize when you're creating unhappiness and conflict and if you genuinely WANT to be happy, do something to change the status quo. If you WANT to be unhappy, by all means, keep doing what you're doing.

Resources: Myself. I finally pulled myself out of this unhappy fog I've been in lately, and it's super empowering to know that I am in control of whether or not I'm happy.

One book that helped a lot was "The Noticer" by Andy Andrews. It is about an old man who helps young people get a little perspective on their lives. In one instance he is sitting on a beach with a homeless man eating a can of sardines, and he asks the homeless man what he's doing. The homeless man says "I'm sitting on a beach eating a can of sardines." The old man replies, "well I'm having surf and turf with an ocean view."

It just made me see that any situation is what you make of it, and you can make any situation better when you choose to be happy.

Sep 15, 2011, 12:49AM PDT | 7 comments | 26 cheers