Happiness is in our expectations.

Garrison Keillor remarked about happiness last week on his radio show. It stuck with me. Here is what I remember from what I heard him say.

Our happiness is based on our expectations. When a situation or result is better than we had anticipated we feel happy.

One strange example that Keillor gave:
You are a passenger on the prison bus going from the county jail to the State prison. The bus encounters mechanical difficulty and pulls over to the side of the road. All of the inmates are removed from the bus. There you are, shackled hand and foot, standing in the ditch at the side of the road and you look around and notice that it is a very nice day. Your heart feels happiness that you are enjoying part of a nice day in the out of doors, even though you are a prisoner, shackled, and standing in a ditch.

Perspective. Happiness results from our perspective and expectations being exceeded.