When did we become a therapy society? When did it become easier to tell everyone about our troubles, but not our successes? Do you ever think about that?

But what is happiness? How can we attain it?

Well… the idea is that happiness cannot be pursued. It’s not something you receive or stumble upon. It’s not something to be found while actively searching for it.

Happiness is not the accumulation of material things. It’s not about who you love or who loves you. It’s not about the people in your life or the success you have or the fame or the glory. It’s really not.

Happiness is progress. Happiness is the sense of fulfillment one feels after accomplishing a difficult task. Happiness is hope for a better future, happiness is striving so that future becomes a reality, but not at the expense of the present moment.

If it sounds complicated or difficult, it’s kind of why most people like to say that they’re not happy.

Happiness is being aware of your reality, accepting it for what it is. Never better, never worse.

Happiness is being ambitious. But be mindful, for ambition must not be driven by desire. Fulfilling one’s desires is not the same as attaining happiness. Pleasure is not happiness. One should be ambitious about one self. One should be driven by the idea that every single day he must become better than who he was the day before.

Like I previously wrote, happiness is progress.

Happiness is also doing the right thing for the right reason. Helping others because it’s the right thing to do, not because people expect you to do it or they’ll think highly of you if you do it.

Happiness is being who you really are without fear of being judged or punished for it.

Happiness is being proud of who you are and what you have, not because others have less, not because you used to have less, but because you are real. You are a real person, and you feel no need to compare yourself to others. You choose who you are, you choose what you think about all that. There is no outside pressure. You are your own master. You choose your own path.

Never forget! Your thoughts become decisions, and those decisions become your destiny.

Being happy doesn’t mean never making a mistake. It means accepting those mistakes, seeing them for what they are, seeing the good in them, the different path that made you take. Seeing the challenge in adversity. The opportunity presented by chaos.

Being happy doesn’t mean being perfect. It means being content with the person that you are, while being aware that there’s room for improvement. There always is. But we shouldn’t make ourselves miserable because of that.

Being happy is a choice. And, believe it or not, the choice was and always be yours.