Happiness only comes in very small doses. The chocolate chip cookie after dinner, the good meal, the fun night with friends/loved ones.

Searching for happiness or trying to engineer it is basically impossible and will often lead to the opposite. Happiness is just "happened upon".

Contentment on the other hand can be achieved. Primarily it has to do with learning how to curb your desires and regularly reminding yourself to be appreciative of where you are in life at any given moment.

One good thing about getting older is that Contentment seems to be easier to achieve. When I look back at my 20s I largely see it as a fairly negative time period....don't get me wrong I had lots of fun and made lots of great friends....but overall I wasn't content and felt fairly desperate all the time.