We were taking our children to a resort. The children loved swimming, and I figured it was a good time to have them appreciate what we were doing for them. So I tried to needle some nice feedback.

“Are you happy?” I asked my eldest kid, who was then 11.

“Yes, ” he answered.

“Why?” I asked, expecting him to say he was happy because we brought them to the place.

He thought sometime about it, and asked back, “Dad, why? Do I need a reason?”

On second thought, he was right. Maybe us grownups seemed jaded to think we should have a reason for everything.

We don’t need a reason to be happy.

Happiness should be our natural, default state.

And if you are not happy, it makes more sense to keep asking yourself that you should have a good reason why not.

After all, if you have 10 reasons to be happy, and 2 reasons not, logic dictates 10 wins over 2. Why would most of us end up being unhappy?