“Happiness is not a goal. It’s a by-product of a life well lived.”

This quote, by Eleanor Roosevelt, addresses whether you’re looking at happiness at a micro or macro level. At a micro level, happiness becomes the end goal of every action. It becomes a constant effort–a never-ending pursuit. It means when something bad happens or you’re sad, one or more actions follow. Sometimes positive. Sometimes self-destructive. Either way, they often only have a temporary effect.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to do positive things with happiness as your goal. However, such actions should not be the only way. Pay attention to the bigger picture of how you live your life as a whole. As this quote suggests, happiness is a natural by-product of a life well lived. Therefore, focus on a life well lived more than on individual actions to remedy unhappiness every time it occurs.