Describe Your Definition Of Happiness | Writing Prompt

For many years, when someone asked me what I wanted to be in the future, my answer was happy. I used to think that was smart of me, a noble goal to work towards. This answer didn’t come out of nowhere though. Ever since I can remember, I felt more unhappy than happy. I used to say ‘I just want to be happy’. It felt unreachable. Hence it became my goal, something to work towards. Because reaching happiness is the ultimate peak in life, isn’t it? You’ve made it, not when you have money or fame, but when you are truly happy.

More recently, I have realised that maybe this goal has been preventing me from finding happiness in life as it is. No one is always happy. No matter how much money, fame, love and joy you experience, you will not always be happy. We humans just don’t work like that. Often, when we finally achieve what we work towards, what we think will bring us happiness, it only brings disappointment. Lottery winners who drown in alcohol. Famous people suffering from debilitating anxiety. The dream job that leaves us drained. Happiness seems to be out of reach, no matter what.

Maybe it is time to change the way we view happiness. Maybe happiness isn’t this all-encompassing thing that you can achieve one day. Maybe happiness is everywhere, in the tiniest things, if you bother to look for it. Maybe happiness is calling your mum and talking about your day. Maybe happiness is the spring flowers peeking out. Maybe happiness is drinking a hot cup of tea on a rainy day. Maybe happiness is smiling at a stranger on the street.

Maybe happiness isn’t something we achieve one day but an accumulation of all these tiny moments. Finding the good in the everyday, the mundane, instead of the extraordinary. 

I think it’s time to stop expecting to find happiness once we achieve a certain goal or reach a certain point in life. It’s time to start finding happiness where you haven’t thought to look before.