contentment

The two basic components of happiness are contentment and lack of fear. But what is contentment? Contentment is often described as 'lack of desire', which is fine, but does that mean it's not possible to be happy if you have desires? Happiness is about contentment at every turn in life - content with the imperfections in life, content with your plans for the future and current activities, content with the desires you have and with the possibility that you may not fulfill all your current desires, content that life throws challenges, content that you gave it your best shot even if it didn’t work out, content that you will handle whatever life throws at you... This kind of contentment comes from a perspective, a realization, that there is a higher game in life beyond the daily ups and downs. Happiness is not an 'all-or-nothing' experience and neither is contentment.