I think I'm starting to understand this in a new way

People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. ~Abraham Lincoln


I used to think it was just a way to make yourself more pleasant or happy. Just decide to be happy and you will be. It's inducing false emotion. persuading. not a true decision or desire.

i''m coming to think of it as a mindset. how much of stress and discontent is because of how I view life. Sometimes I think of it as a story, and wonder if people would like to read my story. I look at pictures and I put labels on it, saying "she was "the crazy girl" that night" - as if everything would fit into this mould. I'm so focused on NOW that I don't see the journey. Where I am in life is STILL about development and learning how to make choices and be me. I don't know if that will ever not be true (there I go, focusing on NOW). I think I might view a lifetime or my story as too long and unpredictable to know what kind of philosophy will serve me best. It's weird. I have no idea how I got to these thoughts. Will this make sense when I read it later? Does this even make sense to you?