Cranky Pants be GONE. A few years ago, I was packing for my latest trip. I had been pretty much traveling for the previous 15 years straight and on that particular day I was tired, and I was cranky. Over the next few days, that cranky kept getting bigger, louder and more intense.

I spend most of my days happy. Not just kind of happy; really happy. So, after a few days of wearing my cranky pants I had enough. Time to choose something different. Time to put away those cranky pants and put on the happy ones. Happiness, after all, is just a choice.

Thankfully, I have acquired tools along that way that empower me to choose the happiness that is available. Here are 3 of my favorites that you can use anytime to take off those cranky pants and find the joy and enthusiasm of you.

1. Am I unhappy or am I surrounded by unhappy people?

How many people on the planet are actually happy? Not sure? Spend some time listening to the conversations of others. How much of those conversations are about problems and struggle and what is not going right? Most. People who talk about all the amazing things that are occurring in their lives are considered not normal. If most of the world spends their days wearing cranky pants, perhaps when you are feeling cranky too, it is not that you are cranky, rather, you are aware of everyone around you.

One of the most effective tools to get rid of cranky is a simple little question, “Who does this belong to?” Ninety-eight percent of the thoughts, feelings and emotions that we experience are not actually ours. We are just aware. We pick up on the unhappy of others and buy into the lie that we must be unhappy too. The next time you feel unhappy, ask, “Who does this belong to?” If you start to feel lighter, you are not the unhappy one. Let that unhappy go and find the joy of you.

2. Live YOUR Life

When I was choosing cranky about traveling a few years back, I asked “Who does this belong to?”, realized it wasn’t mine and then I started to look from a different place. Was it true that I was tired of traveling? Was it true that I wished to stay home? As I looked at it, I realized that this was not at all true for me. I love traveling. I get to travel all around the world, visit exotic places and meet all types of people. Not everyone has the point of view that I have about traveling. There are lots of people who prefer a different lifestyle. A big part of choosing happiness is clarifying what is true for you and then choosing that; whatever it is, even if others do not value it.

What is it that YOU love in your life right now that you haven’t allowed yourself to know that you love because other people don’t love it and because you are not supposed to? What if you allowed yourself to know what works for you, what is fun for you, what makes you come alive and then you chose that without apology? How much different would your life be?

3. When in doubt, ASK!

The next time you wake up in the morning and put on your cranky pants, stop and ask questions. Questions change everything. Questions open the door to new possibilities.

Here are some questions you can ask:

• What can I be or do different today to change this unhappy right away?
• How does it get any better than this?
• Universe, will you please show me something beautiful today?
• What else is possible here that I’ve never considered?

4. Change your mind

Thoughts, feelings and emotions can change. If you are stuck in the idea that your business should be growing faster, that you should have a certain amount of money, that business is hard work and exhausting, you don’t have to stay there. Every time you have a thought about how your business “should” be, stop and say, “Interesting point of view. I have that point of view.” Say it a few times. What starts to happen is that all of the places where you are judging you or your circumstances become simply interesting points of view rather than truth. And, when something is just interesting, it can be changed. If you didn’t have any points of view of how your business was supposed to be, you could have fun no matter what. Change your mind, change your experience.

When you ask questions, you get out of the autopilot that is keeping you stuck in unhappy. When you ask questions, you rediscover the joy of you.

Cranky pants. Happy pants. It all comes down to a choice and you are the chooser. Use these tools to take off your cranky pants for good and embrace the adventure that life can be.

Dr. Dain Heer is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and internationally renowned speaker. He is the co-creator and leading facilitator of Access Consciousness, a personal development modality Access Consciousness available in more than 170 countries, that has contributed to changing the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world for the past 30 years. Originally raised in the ghettos of Los Angeles and trained as a chiropractor, Dr Heer is also the co-founder of a diverse range of businesses around the world.