Happiness is a choice

I finished What’s Going Right by Paul Conti last night, and at the end there was a quote. He said, “Happiness is a choice.”

My first reaction was, yes.

But then it’s tempting to argue with that because it doesn’t always feel like a choice when bad things happen.

Then again, I came to a different conclusion.

I think I want happiness to be instant. I want to make the choice to be happy and then immediately feel happy. But sometimes happiness is a choice that involves a journey.

A journey of appreciation.

A journey of choosing to focus on what is going well.

A journey of noticing the good that exists alongside the difficult.

I think that’s why people argue with the idea that happiness is a choice. There is work involved in being happy. It requires paying attention to what is going right, even when other things are going wrong.

Maybe happiness isn’t a single choice. Maybe it’s a series of choices made over time.

Do you think happiness is a choice, or do you think it’s something that happens to us?