“Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy. No person will make you happy unless you decide to be happy. Your happiness will not come to you. It can only come from you.”

It’s a lot more convenient to believe that happiness is based on some kind of cause and effect relationship. And to a certain extent, that’s true. Certain things do make us happy. However, the point of this quote, by Ralph Marston, is that we shouldn’t rely on material things, events, or other people to achieve our own happiness. It has to come from within. It has to be as independent of external factors as possible, forming an unshakable, rock-solid foundation (i.e. joy). That is the choice that makes the needle on our compass point toward a state of happiness. Yes, things happen that might cause us to feel sad. But like a magnetic force, we are drawn back to our true North–the happiness (joy) we’ve cultivated within.