Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about happiness and what it means to me. As a 19-year-old male, my idea of happiness mostly revolved around playing video games, hanging out with my dog, and enjoying good food. I’m not sure what changed this year, but I’ve started asking the big questions.

So far, I’ve deduced some things by thinking in reverse. I know I want to be impactful because I hate feeling useless. Naturally, having a positive impact on people is ethically good, and from my experience, I genuinely enjoy helping others. I’ve also realized that grand goals aren’t as important as I once thought.

Having big dreams is cool, and taking risks when you’re young is good. Don’t let yourself think small at all. However, I don’t think it’s good for me to focus on these big dreams, as I don’t see myself chasing them consistently until I’m 50, especially in terms of happiness. Chasing long-term dreams seems meaningful if the project is impactful or fulfilling.

This brings me to the question: What makes me happy daily? What small goals and wins can I look forward to that put a smile on my face?

Recently, writing has been pretty good for achieving just that, though it can be annoying to come up with coherent sentences. At the end of a writing session, I’m happy to reflect on the ideas I initially had and see how they’ve transformed over time. Another source of happiness is having a cup of tea or coffee in the morning. At this point, it’s more of a ritual before I start my day, but I still look forward to it.

All in all, happiness is a pretty dense topic, and to be honest, I’ve only scratched the surface. To reiterate, happiness doesn’t have to be the big or grand goal that people often make it out to be. Of course, for everyone, it might be different and unique in their own way. But for me, happiness comes from the small things I have control over that I can achieve daily. Don’t wait to be happy.

P.S. realized this was pretty generic but getting to the end goal on my own than blindly listening to others is important

Have a happy Friday,
Andy