Life will never be perfect. Imperfection is a natural part of the human condition. For instance, in my own life, I’ve found that as soon as I resolve one problem, another problem takes its place. Now, most problems do get resolved. And that is wonderful. But it is a hard to accept that life will always have challenges. There will always be areas that need improvement.

So, the key to life is to not strive for perfection. If that is your goal, you will be like Sisyphus, pushing the boulder up the mountain, only to have it roll back down again. Perfection simply won’t happen. Instead, you want to do two things. You want to keep striving to improve your life. But you also want to enjoy your life while you are on your journey of improvement.

Below are some ways to appreciate and enjoy your life, even when things aren’t so perfect.

Stop Saying “I’ll Be Happy When…”: Very often, people will put their lives on hold when they don’t have that one thing that they want. For instance, many single people say, “Well, I’ll be happy with my life once I find that special someone and get married.” Or some folks might say, “I’ll be happy with my career once I get the job of my dreams.” Or many of us will say, “I’ll be happy with my body once I lose 10 pounds.”

Well, it takes a while to find a significant other. And great jobs don’t grow on trees. Worse yet, losing 10 pounds is no small undertaking. So, your life plan cannot be to defer your happiness until you meet your goals.

You have to figure out how to be happy now, regardless of your circumstances. One approach is to regularly do those activities which give you joy or contentment. For example, I love reading and books, and I happily can spend hours in a bookstore. There have been times when my life was a mess, when I took solace in a good book or an afternoon at Barnes & Noble. For me, a couple of hours at Barnes & Noble is the best therapy available.

I always have been a firm believer that even if my life is imperfect, there is no good reason why I should be unhappy. So, don’t delay your happiness simply because your life isn’t perfect. Find those things that you enjoy, and do them!

Focus on What Is Going Well: The best training that you can do for your mind is to learn to focus on what is going well in your life. And, yes, that is a skill that has to be learned! That is because we tend to focus on what is going wrong in our lives, rather than on what is going right.

For example, if you have one thing going wrong in your life and ten other things that are going right, I will bet that you will spend 90% of your time focusing on the one wrong thing and 10% of your time focusing on what is going well. We all tend to do that. So, we have to retrain our minds to focus on what is good.

That takes some effort. Focusing on what is good in your life is often referred to as a Gratitude Practice. The name is apt because it takes practice to be grateful! One way I practice gratitude is to think of one way that I am blessed before I even get out of bed. As soon as my alarm goes off, I think of something to be grateful for. Everyone has a different approach. Some people keep their minds focused on the positive with gratitude journals. Use whatever approach works for you so that you can keep re-directing your mind away from your problems and toward all the ways that you are blessed.

Stop Worrying About When Your Problems Will Go Away: One thing that we can count on in life is that it will always change. Unfortunately, life never changes on our timelines. For example, I have dealt with some aggravating people in my life who I honestly wished would just go away. The good news is that irritating people do go away – eventually. But it has never been on my schedule.

It is impossible to predict when your problems will be resolved. For instance, I was in an unhappy marriage for a number of years. So often, I thought to myself, “Good heavens, when will this relationship just naturally peter out?” But unfortunately, most unsuccessful marriages don’t just peter out. There has to be a lot of unnecessary drama before couples can call it a day.

So, I had two choices. I could choose to be miserable simply because I was in a bad marriage, or I could choose to be happy. I chose to be happy (most of the time). I focused on doing what I enjoyed (parenting my daughter, reading books, and writing), and I mostly ignored my marriage when it became too irritating. And eventually I got divorced, and the problem went away. But it took some time.

Now I could have spent a long time being unhappy. But who would that have served? No one.  You have no idea when your problems will end, so choose to be happy anyway.

This week, make a choice to be happy even if your life is imperfect. Focus on what is good in your life, and to the extent possible, ignore the bad. Every moment of your life is precious. Learn to be happy no matter what is going on in your life, and you’ll be happy always.

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