The first misconception about happiness is that it’s hiding and waiting to be found.

I’ve always felt like to be content I needed a road map. I need a yellow brick road or an ‘X’ to mark the spot. Like happiness was a destination with a long, complicated journey full of obstacles and required a level of self-discovery I didn’t know. I felt like I was constantly depending and waiting on the promise that someday, after jumping through all the hoops, and I was through with the constant chasing; I would finally manage to make it. I would finally get it.

I felt like because the immediate sense of happiness wasn’t glaringly obvious in my life – like it seemed to be in the life of others – that it had to be out of reach. I had to find it, and to find it, I had to earn the right.

Sometimes we’re looking so hard, too hard, that we’re not seeing anything at all. We’re too busy looking for the right signs and the right combination of events that will offer us a chance at something we’ve already been guaranteed.

The secret to feeling good about who you are and what you’re doing isn’t buried under false pretenses and guessing games. It’s not a trick question we’ll never manage to figure out. There’s no step by step process to follow. It isn’t complex or difficult or impossibly hard.

Call it cliché, but there’s not just one brand of happiness. There’s a multitude of different kinds, and we’re constantly neglecting the less obvious options. It’s not a sentiment that’s the same across the board for everyone. It looks different to different people, but we’re all too busy trying to find the same thing.

No two people are identical, so why should the things that make them happy be?

The key is to understand your surroundings. Understand how everyday moments affect your life in a positive way. Understand the obvious things, the normal things, the average things about you. Understand that happiness isn’t something to be found and it’s not something that needs to find you.

Happiness isn’t hiding beneath the ordinary waiting to be discovered. Happiness is the ordinary. It doesn’t need to be discovered or found. The things that make you happy and the things that surround you aren’t mutually exclusive. Happiness doesn’t need to look like self-realization. It can be a messy room, it can be a clean room, it can be a warm breeze or a favorite shirt.

And most importantly, what looks happy on others won’t always be a good fit for you. Looking for happiness in others happiness can be possible, but it’s not reliable. Find your own sources; your own reasons.

Because I have a feeling that if you stop looking and waiting, they’re right there, ripe for the picking.