Am I Living a Happy Life?
Happiness isn’t somewhere far away.
We become happier when we recognize the small things in our daily lives.
This is a story about scattering thumbtacks of happiness and finding joy in the ordinary,
like three-leaf clovers all around us.
My Daily Life
The other day, I found myself thinking.
Looking back, my teens and twenties were packed with so much stuff.
School, hanging out with friends, trips, exams, job hunting.
Days felt long back then. A single year felt like several years.
Three years of high school? Felt like forever. Four years of college? So much happened.
But my thirties? No idea how they went by.
Working like crazy, company dinners, marriage, kids, buying a house.
I was busy, sure. But looking back, it just flew by.
Ten years, technically. Felt like maybe three or four.
After hitting forty, time seems even faster.
The older folks were right. Time really does speed up as you get older.
I stopped and thought about it. Why is that?
Something I read a while back came to mind.
When we’re young, everything’s new.
So many first-time experiences. Our brains are busy recording all of it.
Mom’s home-cooked meals, getting that short haircut before middle school, falling off the bike over and over trying to learn, good times with school friends, that first time I spotted Orion in the night sky and thought it was the coolest thing.
These memories stuck hard. That’s why time felt long.
But as we get older, it’s just the same stuff over and over.
Commute, work, commute, sleep — day after day.
Maybe our brains don’t bother recording anymore.
Same days on repeat, so the brain just compresses everything.
That’s why time feels like it’s flying, or so they say.
Thinking about time got me to another question.
Am I living a happy life?
Been busy all this time, but am I actually happy?
I’m not unhappy. So I guess I’m happy.
Got plenty of flaws, but I’m okay with who I am right now.
But why am I happy? What does it really take to feel happy?
Do other people feel their own happiness?
One thought led to another.
So I decided to dig deeper into this happiness thing.
What even is happiness?
How do you become happy?
Looked through some books, read stuff online, tried to remember things I saw on TV.
Making Happiness a Daily Habit
I looked up all kinds of stuff about happiness.
Found some interesting things.
But honestly, the usual advice like “try harder” or “stay positive” didn’t do much for me.
What really clicked was the scientific stuff about how our brains work.
I once heard a psychology professor say something that stuck with me:
Happiness isn’t about intensity. It’s about frequency.
At first, I was like, what does that even mean?
Wouldn’t winning the lottery or making it big make you super happy?
But research says otherwise.
They tracked lottery winners, and guess what.
A year after winning, their happiness levels were pretty much the same as everyone else.
We’re adaptable creatures.
Good things happen, but we get used to them.
New clothes, first car, new house, that promotion.
Feels amazing at first. Few months later? Just normal life.
So instead of one huge burst of happiness, feeling small joys often actually makes you happier overall.
Lots of little happy moments beat one big one. That’s the idea.
Who was it again? Some neuroscientist on TV said something that stuck with me.
Just caught it while the TV was on, but I still remember.
He said to be happy, scatter thumbtacks of happiness in your daily life.
Thumbtacks sound painful, right? But here’s what he meant.
Plant little happiness triggers throughout your day.
And when you notice them, consciously recognize that you’re happy.
Like, your morning coffee tastes good? Don’t just gulp it down.
Think, “This is good coffee. I’m happy right now.”
Come home and your family’s there to greet you? Don’t just brush past it.
Stop and think, “This. This is happiness.”
When we recall happy moments often, when we recognize happiness in the present, our brains actually feel happier.
Our brains react to what we think.
Tell yourself you’re happy often enough, and your brain believes it.
On the flip side, keep thinking you’re miserable, and your brain buys that too.
Same situation, different perception, different level of happiness.
This isn’t the same as just “think positive.”
It’s not about forcing positivity.
It’s about noticing the good stuff that’s already there.
There was this essay I read online that stayed with me too.
A story about four-leaf clovers and three-leaf clovers.
A mom was walking with her kid and they found a clover patch.
Kid wanted to find a four-leaf clover. They searched and searched. No luck.
So the mom told the kid this.
People think finding a four-leaf clover brings good luck.
But four-leaf clovers are rare. Hard to find.
Three-leaf clovers, though? They’re everywhere.
Look around. They’re all over the place right here.
Luck is rare and special. But happiness is already right next to us.
We just don’t notice because it’s so common.
That’s what the mom told her kid.
Reading that, I really related to it.
We’re always chasing four-leaf clovers.
Better job, more money, bigger house, nicer car.
We think we’ll be happy once we get those things.
But we miss all the three-leaf clovers right beside us.
The food we eat daily, the family we see daily, the air we breathe daily.
These “ordinary” things aren’t ordinary at all.
Reading all this, I looked back on my own life.
When did I actually feel happy? I tried to remember.
Turns out, it wasn’t the big moments.
A warm cup of coffee in the morning.
Winter mornings especially, holding that warm cup, looking out the window. That’s a good moment.
A slow walk around the neighborhood after work.
Walking with nothing on my mind, head gets clearer.
Weekend dinners with family.
Nothing fancy, just simple food and rice. But eating together makes it taste better.
Catching up with an old friend who reached out. Nothing important to talk about, but somehow it’s hilarious.
Sure, finishing a big project or getting promoted felt good.
Proud of myself, felt like I accomplished something.
But that feeling faded faster than I thought.
New goal comes up, get busy again, and that pride just… fades.
Sometimes less than a month later, I’d think, “So what?”
But the small daily pleasures? They can happen every day.
Coffee every day. Walk every day. Family dinner every day.
These little things add up to a pretty decent life.
Used to take all this for granted.
Or more like, I just didn’t pay attention.
Drinking coffee while scrolling my phone. Walking while thinking about work. Eating with family while my mind was elsewhere.
Body was there. Mind wasn’t.
So I came up with my own definition of happiness.
Happiness isn’t far away.
It’s already in my daily life.
I just wasn’t seeing it.
Happiness isn’t something you get by achieving stuff.
It’s noticing the moment you’re in right now.
You don’t become happy when some future condition is met.
You become happy when you notice the good things in the present.
Once I thought about it this way, I felt better.
I’d been overcomplicating happiness.
Thought I needed to achieve something big or have something special happen.
But that’s not what happiness is.
It was right beside me all along. I just didn’t see it.
Living a Happy Life
I want to try living a bit differently from now on.
Not talking about some grand life goal.
Not flipping my life upside down.
Just appreciating small things each day and noticing happiness more often.
Morning coffee — don’t just drink it out of habit. Take a moment to feel that it’s good.
Look up at the sky on the way home.
Put the phone down during family meals. Actually talk.
Reach out to friends first.
Small things, really.
Like that neuroscientist said, I’m gonna scatter thumbtacks of happiness around.
Morning coffee, lunchtime walk, evening with family.
Instead of letting these slip by, I’ll consciously think, “This moment is good.”
Might feel weird at first. But it’ll become natural eventually, right?
Time flies no matter what.
Thirties flew by. Forties are flying by. It’ll only get faster.
People often say that time accelerates as we get older.
So why not feel happiness more often within that time?
Better than waiting for one big happiness and watching life pass by.
Three-leaf clovers are already everywhere around me.
Don’t want to miss them while hunting for four-leaf clovers.
Sure, it’d be nice to find a four-leaf one. But it’s okay if I don’t.
Three-leaf clovers are enough to be happy.
If you’re reading this, maybe take a moment to think.
Am I happy? What kind of happiness is in my daily life?
Are you missing the three-leaf clovers beside you while searching for four-leaf ones?
Let’s each find our own happiness, wherever we are. Let’s live well.
Doesn’t have to be some big happiness.
Feel small happinesses often, and that’s a good life, isn’t it?
You worked hard today.
Hope you find lots of little happinesses tomorrow too.