Be joyful always.
—1 Thessalonians 5:16
It’s dead wrong!
What is?
The crazy notion that you shouldn’t be happy unless your spouse is happy, your mother is happy, your teenager is happy; that you have no right to be happy unless everybody in your circle is happy—and that it is up to you to make them happy.
If those around you are miserable help them if you can, but don’t surrender your own happiness because of them. Joining their misery won’t make them happy.
Misery + Misery = Happiness. That’s a screwy equation.
The happier you are in your own skin, the better the chance of some of it rubbing off on others.
But you’re fooling yourself if you think you can make miserable people happy.
Happiness is an inside job.