Your life is a result of the choices you make….if you don’t like your life, it is time to start making different choices.

May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.

I'll let you in on a few secrets to life. The biggest secret isn't much of a secret at all. It's a fact of life that most people probably don't realize. Your life can be shaped however you want it. What I mean by that is your life is full of choices, one choice leads to another choice and when you look back on your life, you will realize that the path you took in life was determined by all the choices you made. For example, once you graduate from high school, there are plenty of options for how to spend the next years of your life. One choice is whether or not to go to college. If you choose to go to college, you have to choose which of the thousands of colleges would be the best fit for you. Depending on which college you attend leads you to meeting a whole bunch of people and gives you an entire set of experiences that definitely wouldn't have happened if you hadn’t chosen that college. So, as you can see, you are creating your life around these seemingly insignificant choices and some of those decisions can change your entire life. Think about it.

Another secret, again not really a secret, is that sometimes the only thing you need is a cup of coffee on your back porch with a good book. You can't make your problems disappear, but you can take some time to escape from them for a while. You will most likely have to face them at some point, but this might help to put everything in perspective. Don’t be afraid to give yourself some quality “me” time. There will come a point in your life that this therapy will be needed, trust me.

The third secret, or fact of life is to always remember that you are your own person. Don't ever try to be like someone else and don't ever let others influence your happiness. The secret of being happy is accepting where you are in life and making the most out of everyday. Being that you are your own person, you can make your own choices, you can decide your own future and you can create your own happiness. The world can be a big scary place, but not if you look at it as your life runway. You have the ability to be and do whatever you set your mind to and decide to do. Never forget it. Set goals and don’t stop until you get there. As you reach your goals, set new ones. That is how you grow.

Happiness isn’t a destination, it’s a journey.