"Happiness is not achieved through the pursuit of happiness. It is instead a by-product, something we achieve by focusing on other things. Some new research corroborates this view.
There’s a significant and negative correlation between thinking about the meaning or purpose of life and happiness; people who spend more time thinking about the meaning of life tend to be less happy than people who don’t."

-John Kay, Obliquity: Why our goals are best achieved indirectly