I have always wondered about happiness, how some people can be so happy and some be the total opposite, how everyone seems to have a different definition of it, yet we all know what it is. We strive for it in our daily lives, but don’t always get it. I sometimes wondered how to get it. 

I truly believe that to live happily and truly free in your life, you have to be congruent inside out. The way you are when you are alone or what you do in private should be the way you are around people, or what you do when people are watching or at least as close as possible. One inside out.

They say we are at our best when we don’t have to hide our true self and don’t have to worry about being ourselves, because you are. That is where happiness and peace live, that is where we should all strive to be.

Many people spend their whole lives trying to make sure their public image and personal images are the same, which is much more difficult to get right than we realise it. We live in a fast-paced world that forces us to react and compromise for our own sanity, and for the peace of others. Sometimes we have to go out of our ways to accommodate others, and sometimes we have to simply push through them to get our way. 

Am not sure I have met anyone who is truly happy in the fullest sense of the word, but I know of many who are content with their lives. If today was their last day alive on earth, they wouldn’t regret how they will be leaving this world behind.

I am convinced of one thing, which is that you can’t be happy when those closest to you are deeply distressed. I have learned this first-hand, and picked it up from those I interact with socially. In a way, you can’t be happy alone, but also only you yourself can define what happiness is to you.

To be happy doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, as long as who you think you are aligns with who others think you are, or at least comes close. If you live your life as you say you are and portray it to the outside world, happiness will not be far from your reach. You will be living a wealthy life that way!

• Olavi Popyeinawa

• Twitter: @olavipopyeinawa

• Email: olavipopyeinawa@gmail.com