I love the practice of defining happiness. A similar definition I heard of happiness is: “Not wanting anything to be different than what it is right now.” At first glance, I think this freaks people out because they mistake it for complacency. I’ve been reading more philosophy lately, and in studying Stoicism, one of the things they talk about is fully and completely accepting exactly what is in the present moment. And they are quite literal with this. They recognize that you could make a choice in this moment that changes your situation in the future — a day, an hour, or even a half second — but the practice of accepting each PRESENT moment exactly as it is — that is tranquility. And I think the definition of happiness is the same way. One of the things that has helped me do that is focusing on progress over perfection. I am somebody who — as soon as I learn something — I wish I knew it yesterday, or a year ago, or a decade ago. But I practice changing that self-talk into: “I am so excited I know this now and I can apply this moving forward!” Life has no destination, and even when we create artificial destinations, as you say, Zat, we are biologically programmed to want more — so almost immediately it feels not good enough. But yes, we absolutely can rewire our brains. The other quote this made me think of was “Expect everything but attach to nothing” — I think that captures your concept of expanding the zone of desire. I like using the law of attraction, and I like specificity, so I still work to reconcile some of these various ideas. Being so specific in my visions and my dreams so that they manifest, yet not attaching to any one outcome. All in all — I do believe that happiness is a choice that we make. And not just once, but multiple times a day. For myself, I also choose to practice self-compassion in the moments when I am not choosing happiness. And pay attention to how not being happy is serving me in that moment. It may not take me closer to my objective goals, but all of our choices serve us, even if the payoff is subconscious. Thank you for writing this, Zat — I will continue to think about the questions I ask myself.