Can you define happiness?

To consider yourself ‘happy’ differs from person to person, sometimes it takes big things to make someone happy and other times it can be something small that was not expected to bring a smile to someone’s face. Finding quotes of ‘happiness’ can sometimes be cliché and don’t always consider the vast extent to what the word actually means. Is happiness ‘being cheery in an atmosphere?’ or ‘the secret of curiosity?’ It’s the diverse definitions that makes these quotes so interesting; even though they seem to differ so much from one another, they all come together under a cloud of emotion which promotes positive progress and aspect of life. But the truth is, is that none of these quotes are wrong, there is no right or wrong answer to what makes somebody happy and it may even change between individuals.

“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” - This quote by Abraham Lincoln portrays happiness as a psychological concept and a result of our own courage. We might seek to find things ourselves that we know will provide us with happiness but in the end, it isn’t what we find that make us happy, it is the accomplishment of finding them. Within ourselves, we can strive to achieve this positive feeling as long as we have the right mindset to do it. It isn’t the material things that make us happy, it is the idea of achievement and motivation that give us that sense of happiness.

“It's the little moments that make life big.” – This quote defines happiness by moments specific to ourselves. Everyone can be happy because they have won the lottery, or because they have got a promotion at work but it is the individual moments that are known to only ourselves that provide us with those happy moments. Something that we wished for that we never dreamed of happening, or some small words that make us overcome fear. Happiness is such a widely used term that it is usually associated with big happenings, but the aim of this quote is to portray happiness through things so small that they are exclusive only to individuals and not widely known.

“Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.” - The most common misconception of happiness is that everything has to be perfect but the people who achieve happiness are the ones who live imperfect lives. If happiness defined perfection, or perfection defined happiness then no one could be happy; because life doesn’t provide perfection for the people that live on it. It provides challenges and goals and hardships but it is reaching beyond these and stabilizing our lives with them that proves we can look past the imperfections and still be happy.

However you define happiness and whoever you attribute it to, it is accessible to everyone and can be found wherever you want to find it.