Have you ever been so close to reaching a milestone or event in your life that you have thought to yourself, "I can't wait for that day to come because only then I truly be happy"? Have you ever been so convinced that if you just reached this goal of yours-no matter how hard it may be- that you will finally be able to rest and say that you're satisfied? Could it really work that way? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word 'happiness' as "a state of well-being and contentment." Even though I agree with this definition, trying to have everything meet your expectations so that the end result is your happiness is incorrect. Although we go through life trying to chase what it is that makes us happy, we often fail to realize that happiness isn't an object to be fished for, but it is in fact a frame of mind.
The first thing I want to make clear is that the feeling of being happy and actual happiness are two separate things. Feeling happy is caused by reasons and experiences that may not have as much of an impact on you as much as being happy and many people confuse the two. One can say that feeling happy is associated with the feelings of pleasure: a feeling of short term enjoyment such as passing a math test or giving money to a homeless person. Surely those accomplishments make you feel good, but those emotions go away after time. Some days I'm happy and some days I'm sad or angry. It doesn't mean I am unhappy altogether, it just means that those were my emotions that day.
Being happy is more closely connected to a long term contentment that you acquire within yourself. Happiness is based on your thoughts alone and is correlated with a sense of inner peace or an inner self. It is different from feeing happy because being happy means that no event or situation that you experience in your life will determine your mood or reaction to it; you are in control.