Nothing outside you needs to change. This is the most difficult fact for people to accept on the path to happiness. If you feel internal resistance to this concept, you are not alone. Every person I have ever coached has balked at accepting this essential understanding. And absolutely all of those who saw through their resistance, have successfully established the ongoing experience of happiness in their lives.
There are a number of reasons we resist this idea. First off, our culture encourages us to look outside ourselves for happiness - to pursue people, things, and experiences as the source of our happiness. Secondly, believing the source of our happiness is out there somewhere lets us off the hook to some degree (we don't need to change, our spouse/children/boss/co-worker/job/house/body etc. needs to change - and then we will be happy). And finally, we are afraid that if we accept that nothing needs to change in order for us to be happy, then we have to accept everything in our life exactly the way it is.
Accepting full responsibility for our own happiness gives us all the power to actually make it happen. And choosing happiness now, (not at some elusive time in the future when you have managed to force everything in your life to conform to the 'perfect picture' you imagine), does not mean you cannot endeavor to make changes to the way things are. It just means that you put happiness first, and then from that state of happiness go about creating the details that you believe will maximize your enjoyment of life. If you are operating from happiness, everything else becomes an adventure.
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