Abraham Lincoln said, “People are about as happy as they make up their mind to be.” I agree with Lincoln and think Dan Gilbert has useful and impart on the subject of happiness and contentment.

Dan Gilbert talks about happiness. On TED/WNYC – New York Public Radio

Psychologist Dan Gilbert challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our “psychological immune system” lets us feel real, enduring happiness, he says, even when things don’t go as planned. He calls this kind of happiness “synthetic happiness,” and he says it’s “every bit as real and enduring as the kind of happiness you stumble upon when you get exactly what you were aiming for.”