I think people sometimes get so caught up in their lives, that they forget what makes them happy.
Let me give you a small scale example:
One of the things that makes me happier is working out. I used to work out several times a week, but after I started this blog I found I didn’t quite have time for it in the mornings any more and was just doing it on the weekends. This past weekend was particularly busy and I didn’t have time for it then either. Because a work out is … well … work, I could see it as possible that at some point in the future I say to myself that it’s just not worth it, I’ve got too much else to do. Thus I would stop doing something that I like doing and that makes me happy, because it’s easier not to do it when I’m so “busy” with other stuff. Then years from now, I’d still be in the middle of my “busy” life and wonder why I don’t feel as happy as I used to (and why I’m overweight), and I probably wouldn’t even really guess it was because I’d stopped working out.
It can be very easy to let these things go and forget about them.
Most kids, even if they don’t know exactly what they want to be when they grow up, know that they want to be adults (because then you can do what you want). They are wrong, of course, adults have other responsibilities and rarely re doing exactly what they want. I am in my thirties now and when I grow up I want to be a kid again.
Kids are much more connected with happiness than adults, they know the meaning of “play”, and they are rarely too busy to be happy. In fact most of the time they are too busy BEING happy to be “serious” about “life” (at least from an adults perspective).
So it may be worth taking some time to think about your own happiness. What is it you may have forgotten about, or what is it you know will make you happier that you no longer do?
You may be surprised how much there is that you are no longer doing.
Keep laughing.