I agree that happiness is something you can't constantly be in search of. You try so hard looking for it that you can't see the happy-making things right in front of you, and in the end you won't be happy at all - you'll feel like it's constantly just out of reach.

For me, I do have goals, there are things I want that I don't yet have - I'm looking forward to fixing things in our house, making a front and back yard, planning holidays with the kids. But I'm not unhappy because I don't have those things yet, I'm happy because we're working towards them. I'm also happy in my job, with my family, with what I'm doing with myself.

I can pinpoint exactly why I was so very unhappy in recent years. My job was soul-sucking. And the stupid thing is, I chose it for the money. The money did not make me happy, but the stress very nearly led to a nervous breakdown. So now, I do a job I'm happy in, 6 hours a day, 2 days a week. I have more time for my family and myself, and while it'll take longer to get those material things we would like, we are all so much happier for it.