I believe we all have the power to create happiness. 

Our happiness is within our control, in any circumstance.

But I didn’t start out with that view.  For most of my life I felt I was at the mercy of external circumstances, and those circumstances determined my path, my experience, and my level of happiness.  So I spent a lot of time searching for the “right” circumstances. 

 I grew up in a spiritual household and have a deep belief in divine guidance.  But in my life that translated into trying to follow the signs to the place where everything I wanted would simply appear.  I thought I just had to find the “right” place, and have faith.

 So while I was waiting for all of that to appear, I focused on my career.  I worked as a visual effects producer in Los Angeles and eventually joined the leadership team of a tech start-up serving the film production industry.  Following a successful acquisition, I got my MBA and moved into larger enterprise software companies.  On the outside, it all looked like success.  But on the inside I was exhausted and battling depression. 

Every major career change I made came from experiencing burnout. 

My response was to change the external circumstances.  It always felt more like a pressing need than a choice, and the greater the burnout the bigger the change needed.

 The emptiness and heartbreak I felt after the start-up acquisition was so intense that I needed to walk away from the entertainment industry entirely.  Getting an MBA wasn’t so much a choice as a safe place to recover, and perhaps hide.  I kept thinking if I just found the right set of circumstances, success would make me happy.  But it didn’t work that way.

 The same pattern repeated in my personal life where I focused on finding ways to make relationships work, hoping that would eventually make us both happy.  But it didn’t work that way here either.

 A few years ago, I found myself recovering from a tough break-up and beginning to feel the weight of burnout setting in yet again.  It was all too familiar.  I knew I needed a different approach.

 Instead of quitting my job, I attended the Happiness Studies Academy where I learned about the science of happiness.  I studied research and learned research-backed tools and techniques. Everything I learned reinforced and deepened the spiritual beliefs and practices I had developed throughout my life because now I understood how and why they worked. I learned practical strategies to apply my spirituality to my life with intention.

Through this skillset, I created happiness for myself regardless of external circumstances.

 It was also through this lens that I saw the lessons in my past experiences.  Those challenging environments had taught me how to find clarity in the midst of chaos.  I had experienced how shared understanding connects people, how focus fuels creation, and how intention can align actions even in the face of seemingly conflicting priorities.

 When I fully integrated these lessons, I finally understood how they applied to my life and how they unlocked the power of the divine to support me.  It was up to me to develop understanding about what I truly wanted and choose to focus my energy with intention.  I had to do the work to create the experience I wanted to have in the world.

 I realized my power, and my responsibility, in creating happiness. 

It wasn’t a matter of waiting for it or finding the “right” place, it was a matter of creating it. 

 This shift in mindset changed everything for me.  It also sparked a passion to help others discover their power to create happiness for themselves.  So eventually I did quit my corporate job, but not because of burnout.  Instead, I chose to create a new path, helping people understand how to create happiness for themselves...which is part of how I create happiness for myself.