Why happiness isn't the point.

We have a pretty twisted view on happiness. If our expectations have any tendency to escalate completely it's when we deal with our personal happiness.

The problem isn't that we want to be happy. It's the fact that we want to be happy ALL. THE. TIME! No exceptions.
You just lost someone close to you? Too bad. The usual dialogue is "Get back on track. Fast!" This way of thinking can lead to a pretty disturbing reality.

Plus, we think of happiness pretty vaguely. What makes you happy now, won't make you happy later, nor did it make you happy earlier. People can kill to feel happy. It's pretty addictive and that's the point. The point isn't about feeling happy all the time, it's about fulfillment - which also includes being sad, destructive, saying things like "There's no such thing such as: Too much Netflix", drinking too much eggnog at your family's Christmas party and swearing that the saying "New year, new me" isn't a pile of lies and you'll prove them otherwise.

Get out of Your Way

You're an expert saboteur with all your life's experience under your belt. If there's anyone that can ruin a good moment for all your life, it's you.
How do we all do this? With a tool: Comparison
We compare. It's bad enough to compare two completely different lives, we're so biased when we do it, it becomes nauseating. "Nauseating?" - yeah. You know when you see someone's Instagram/Facebook post and that's all you see too them? All that spotlight. Which starts a reaction of harassing and a dedication to the art of Youtube hermeticity. Nauseating.

Happiness Always Comes

For things worth doing, happiness is a byproduct - sometimes a late one, but nevertheless it's there. The primary focus should be gratitude and the ability to see instant gratification as something that's not necessarily good.
If you think about it, all things worth doing with your life take time. Tools such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, these are all great, but with time have gotten from a simple tool to a necessity. These all revolve around instant gratification. With their big, shiny red notifications, they're made to give you a sense of emergency and completion. Don't settle for a like - happiness, in this case, is a faux one, a fake time dump designed to give you a sense of daily "fulfillment".

The Power of Choice

Quoting Viktor Frankl in his gem of a book "Man's Search for Meaning"

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” ...
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

These two quotes have stood their test of time. Read them carefully and see how they rise on each-other to compliment the one power we always have: To choose.
Choose a circumstance that you want to build around you, and brick-by-brick, day-by-day continue laying down the foundations for your fulfillment, not happiness. Happiness and sadness are parallel lines. You may have had the most beautiful day of your life yesterday, but you can still feel like trash tomorrow. The point is working towards creating your own image, not making yourself happy each day.

This week's book suggestion is the aforementioned:

Viktor Frankl - Man's Search for Meaning