One of those quotes telling us to be present and grateful for whatever we have right now and stop complaining so much. But let’s face it — we all do it too much. It’s so in our natures to focus on the negative or look for what we can fix. We sometimes keep telling ourselves that, “If I could just _______________, I’d be happy.”

But do our happiness really depend on things on the outside? Or we can be happy without a feeling like we should be THERE in order to be happy? Let’s read this story and see what we can learn from it;

Well, this is a story of a woman living an ordinary life. She thought she would be happy if she got a good job. She tried her best to get the job, and she got it. Once she got the job, she was feeling good. But she felt something was missing.

“Maybe I will feel better living in my own house and having a car.” She was trying to save money and purchased a new house and car. Once she got them, she was feeling satisfied. But she felt something else was missing.

“Maybe I will feel better if I’ve found the love of my life.” … she found a man who loved her and married. The marriage had been smooth, but she felt something else was missing. She saw many couples were happy having kids. It would be nice to have ones of her own.

“Maybe I will feel happier if I have kids,” … and then the couple got children. They were feeling so happy. But raising children isn’t an easy job. The woman felt that when the children got older, she would feel more relaxed, have more time, and become happier.

“Maybe I will feel happier when my children get married and live their own lives.” The woman waited until her children grew older, married, and lived independently.

Many years have passed, and the woman has become an old grandmother waiting for her children and grandchildren to visit.

“I’d feel happier if my children gave me a visit.”

In fact, “our happiness isn’t in the future. We should not wait for that opportunity to make us feel happy.” Once we feel content with what we have, we don’t expect anyone or anything to fulfill our lives, and we never compare our lives with anyone else. Our mind can find the inner peace. And the happiness we have been searching for throughout our lives is, in fact, right here, right now, in our mind.