Are you at a point in your life where you feel like nothing is going right? Maybe you hit a hard patch. Are you ready to put the battery in your back and get back to being the happy you that you miss and love? Here are steps that you can take to get you there.

1. Start by looking at the things that may be contributing to you not being happy

Take an hour to think about the things in your life that you are going through or that is happening to you. Are you stressing out over exams? Is your relationship on the rocks? Has someone in your family fallen on hard times or is ill? Are you unhappy with your body or your life? Take time to jot down the things that may be going wrong in your life in a notebook or if you have a notes app on your phone. While taking this time, make sure that you are limiting yourself from distractions. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb, if possible. Take this time to evaluate your life.

2. Figure out what things you have control over or what you can somehow make better

After, understanding what things in your life are making you unhappy. Start to think about out of things that you can change or can try to make better. For example, your relationship with your significant other is on the rocks. Think about if you want to make it to the relationship better. If you do think about the things you can do. Is it that you and your partner do not communicate well? You should take the time to see what is hindering your relationship. This process can be applied to friendships, situations such as a family member being ill, you having a hard time in school. Start to make a plan as to how you can take steps towards making things easier on yourself.

3. Do something that you know always lifts your spirits and makes you feel good

If getting a haircut or getting your hair done makes you feel better, then do it. If listening to some motivational/uplifting music in the shower while singing along makes you happy, then do it. I know I do and for me, the song that gets me smiling is "Ama be happy" by ArchDuke. This song puts me in such a good mood I almost fell in the shower from dancing. So maybe as happy as me. The goal is to lift your spirits!

4. Make sure you have a plan of how you're going to continue to keep your spirits up

So if that means that every day, you have to start off by saying a certain mantra or by listening to a certain song. If you realized that eating certain foods causes you to be down, then maybe eating less of those foods is what will help. Maybe not talking to a certain person about certain things helps because you realized they don't help to lift your spirits up. Start to form a plan to practice being in a better mood and avoiding the things that don’t help keep your spirits up.

5. Take time to evaluate how practicing these steps have helped

After you have put these steps and goals that you have formed into a consistent practice for about a week start, evaluate whether or not your spirits have been lifted. If they have but not consistently, then figure out what caused this to happen and what you would have to change.

Now you have officially completed the steps to being a happier you. The overall goal is for you to be able to start to get in the hang of evaluating your life and being able to easily detect what things hinder you from being the best you and the happiest you. Do not be ashamed to be selfish. You are being selfish to make yourself better. After you feel you are in a better place and are able to maintain that, then you can go back to helping others. Maybe even refer them to this article.