To feel happy, do you need…

…to be married?
…to have a lot of money?
…to travel a lot?
…to have friends?
…to have a diploma?
…to be admired?
…to have a brand new car?
…to have the latest smartphone?
…to wear the nicest clothes?
…to have a boyfriend?
…to drink Coca-Cola?

If you depend on these things to be happy, what would happen if…

…your marriage finished?
…you lose everything you have?
…you live only from home to work?
…you have no friends?
…you don’t finish your studies?
…no one notices you?
…you depend on public transportation?
…you only have a basic cellphone?
…your clothes are the most simple?
…no one wants to date you?
…Coca-Cola goes bankrupt? (Ok, maybe that’s not such a bad idea.)

It’s obvious that good things contribute to our happiness. However, if you condition your happiness to something that you have no control over, so you are giving your happiness to that something. Is that what you want—to entrust your happiness to something or someone who is not trustworthy or guaranteed?

Happiness is a spiritual state that is born from the inside and reaches the outside. If you’re not happy within, nothing on the outside will make you truly happy. That’s why there are happy homeless people and miserable billionaires.

The day that your happiness depends on God—the only one who combines immutability, goodness, and power—then you will be ready to enjoy a marriage, money, friends, and all the other things that you will conquer. But they’ll simply be improvements in your life—not the reason for your happiness.