If we’re unhappy, it’s because life is not as we want it.  Life is not matching our expectations of how it "ought" to be and so we are unhappy.  So we say, "I’ll be happy when…" Well, life is NOT PERFECT.  Life is about being exhilarated, frustrated, sometimes achieving and sometimes missing out.  So long as we say "I’ll be happy when..", we are deluding ourselves.

Happiness is a decision.  Many people live life as if someday they’ll arrive at "happiness" like one arrives at a bus stop.  They figure that someday everything will fall into place, they will take a deep breath and say, "Here I am at last…happy!"  Hence their life story is one of "I’ll be happy when.."

Each one of us has a decision to make.  Are we prepared to daily remind ourselves that we have only limited time to make the most of what we’ve got, or will we while away the present, hoping for a better future?  We only have so long on this planet.  Let’s make the most of it.  In order to be happier, in order to get more out of life, we don’t have to go and change the world.  The world is already beautiful.  We had to change ourselves. 

The world is not "perfect".  The degree of our unhappiness is the distance between the way things are and the way they "ought" to be.  If we cease to demand that things be perfect, the business of being happy becomes easier.  We then choose to have preferences for the way things might be, and decide that if our preferences are not met, we will be happy anyway.

If you want to be happy, BE HAPPY!