By Beatrice Sithole Email: sbeatrice033@gmail.com
MANY people go to their graves without experiencing true happiness.  
All their lives they toil to find happiness.
They change jobs, careers, homes – some even change partners and so on in pursuit of true happiness.  
However, even after making all those changes, they still fail to get real happiness.  
In fact, I think some people might have been programmed to be unhappy.
Society and culture sometimes teaches us to believe that one can never be happy without reaching certain standards, qualifications or obtaining certain things.  
Many of us live on standards set by other people.
The community where we live sets its own standards, our background would have set its own and all this is programmed in our minds.
For as long as we do not de-programme ourselves from the notion that we have to abide by certain standards to find happiness, we go to our graves without finding true happiness.  
Take time to look around you.
Many people you see live their lives on the unquestioned belief that without certain things, money, power, success or approval they can never be happy.  
The question you need to ask yourself is – who set those standards?
I believe we were all created to be happy wherever we are in life.  
We do not need to be like or be better than the next person, be it within the family, place of work or community to be truly happy.  
We will never find happiness in power, wealth, carrier, education or other people.  
True happiness can only be found within ourselves.  
We don’t need to look elsewhere to find happiness.
It is within our hearts and minds and is the kind that lasts forever.
You cannot go elsewhere in search of happiness.
Genuine happiness is buried deep down inside your heart.  
You need to unearth it by yourself because nothing and nobody can give it to you.
It is not wealth, not good health, education power or any other person who can give you happiness because true happiness is within yourself.
You need to be content with what you have.  
Yes, you can work on improving yourself in all areas of your life, but you need to set your own standards.
If you do that, you will always be happy wherever you are or whatever happens in your life. Never try to be like somebody else because no matter how much you try – there will always be somebody better than you hence you will die without experiencing true happiness.  
Always aim to do your best in life.
Set your own standards and you will live a happy fulfilled life.