That’s because “I’ll be happy when …” isn’t just a phrase. It’s a mindset — and that mindset keeps us waiting for happiness instead of cultivating joy in our lives right now.

Reaching a milestone can feel good, but eventually we start to look for the next milestone, and then we’re back to ...

Research has shown that while happiness tends to spike in the wake of this kind of big life event, it tends to return to its natural set point not long after. Reaching a milestone can feel good, but eventually we start to look for the next milestone, and then we’re back to thinking “I’ll be happy...

• We put off spending time with the people we love to put in overtime at work so we can get that raise.
• We don’t decorate our rental apartment because we want to save every single penny for a down payment, but in the meantime we live in...

So often we dismiss joy because it seems like a distraction from the big happiness we’re hoping for. But even though moments of joy are small, they do something significant: They expand our world.

And whether that happiness comes sooner or later, in the meantime you’re living a full life, o...

But I’ve realized that waiting for happiness is a habit, and like any other habit, we can break it. Now, when I catch myself saying some version of “I’ll be happy when …” I try to imagine myself in the future, looking back on right now.

Then I ask myself: “How will I wish I’d used this time...

If happiness is how we feel about our lives over time, joy is how we feel in the moment. Joy is an intense, momentary burst of positive emotion.

We can tell we’re experiencing joy because we feel it in our bodies as well as our minds. We smile and laugh, our posture opens, and we ...

• makes us passive and stuck
• keeps us waiting for life to happen to us instead of creating a life we want right now.
• keeps us wishing and searching instead of enjoying and living.

Joy, on the other hand, starts where you are. Joy begins with a beautifully imperfect life and asks: How can we can make this life more vibrant, more fun, more full of the things that make us excited to wake up in the morning? It’s a creative mindset, not a comparing one.

But what I’ve learned about leaning into the present rather than waiting for the future is that something unexpected always happens.

Sometimes it’s adventure, and then you’re left with memories you never would’ve had if you’d just waited for happiness to find you. Other times, we find new ...

Happiness is a broad evaluation of how we feel about our lives over time. It’s synonymous with what psychologists call “subjective well-being” and encompasses a r...

Because happiness is somewhat big and complex, it’s not always easy to know what will make us happy.

Many of us have been conditioned to see happiness as tied to certain big milestones in life such as finding a partner, getting a promotion, buying a house, having a child.

We tell our...