Happiness is a choice.

This may come as a bold statement for many, yet it is absolute truth. In almost any situation we find ourselves, we can choose to be happy if we want to. Obviously, this is more difficult to do in some situations than in others. For example, if we are in physical pain, it's very difficult to focus our minds on happiness. And when we are experiencing something pleasurable, happiness almost comes on it's own.

In our modern world, we rarely experience physical pain. Most of situations we find ourselves unhappy in are simply situations that don't meet our expectations. A friend who betrays our trust, a life partner that is dishonest or unfaithful, a boss that is difficult and demanding. These are types of situations that we can choose to be happy in if we set our mental focus properly.

But how do we find happiness in midst of these situations? Or, on a more basic level, how do we control our emotions to be what we want them to be? And an even more basic question, why would we want to?

Let's start with most basic question, why would we want to control our emotions and make them be something other than those expected?

One of core principles in Keys To Power system (and many New Thought systems) is that Power of Spirit is directed by thoughts and feelings within us to create our experiences. This means that when we're thinking and feeling happy thoughts, Power will be directed to create happy experiences. When we think and feel unhappy thoughts, Power is directed to create unhappy experiences. This 'Law of Power' works just as surely and accurately as any other natural Law, such as gravity.

Most people understand basic concepts here, so I won't go into detail here. If you need more detail, read through some of ebooks in Download section of this site. What continually amazes me, however, is number of people who will agree with concepts just mentioned, yet will do nothing to implement them into their lives!

But maybe that is because they don't really know how. Which gets us to next question, how do we control our emotions to be what we want them to be?

To get to answer to that question, we need to understand how emotions work. Not an easy task, and a full description would take far too much time and space to include here. But in essence, emotions react to mental stimulus. This means that combination of our thoughts, beliefs, mental images, and perceptions of world around us work together to create our emotions.

The sight of a mountain can arouse feelings of pride in one person, and feelings of failure in another. Obviously, sight of mountain itself did not create feelings, or everyone would feel same way about seeing a mountain. Hearing that stock market dropped 500 points will make one person feel like end of world is at hand, yet make someone else feel that a grand opportunity has arrived. And on a more personal level, finding out that your spouse has engaged in extramarital affairs can be either a blessing or a curse to relationship, depending on how you look at it.

So, to control our emotions, we need to control mental stimulus that creates those emotions.

Every year, millions of people start to think about ways to make life better, and resolve to do something about it. Unfortunately most of them set themselves up for failure before they even begin, because they don't build a proper foundation from which to build.

The most common resolutions are things like 'lose weight', or 'stop smoking', or 'start a new business'. Sometimes resolution will be something like 'make new friends', or 'win ______ award', or 'spend more time with family'.

In short, resolutions are decisions to reach specific goals. Here are some ideas to keep in mind to insure success of your resolutions.

1. Positive Expectation People who succeed with resolutions are those who expect to succeed. Those who expect to fail won't even make effort to move forward.

One of best ways to build positive expectation is to find evidence that others have succeeded in what you're wanting to accomplish. This is one reason "Chicken Soup for Soul" books have become so popular. They contain hundreds of short stories of people succeeding in all areas of life.

Another excellent means of building positive expectation is to simply imagine yourself succeeding. Scientific studies have proven that inner mind cannot tell difference between a real event and one that is vividly imagined.

If you want to have feeling that you've succeeded in something before, all you have to do is to vividly imagine succeeding. Then, whenever you think about that goal, your inner mind will recall vivid experience of succeeding, and you'll have positive expecatation of future success.

2. Have A Clear Plan For Acheivement If you wanted to take a trip to a place you've never been, would you just jump in car and guess your way there? Or would you take a minute to look at a map to see which roads will get you to your destination?