The essence of this quote, as also the essence of the quote from Adam Smith, demonstrates that solely by our own choices we can so easily and readily set ourselves up for impending happiness or misery.

Dan Gilbert’s presentation at TED was equally brilliant in asserting the same notion while all of this fits perfectly with the Buddhist principle of “suffering comes from desire”.

The idea of comparing the notion of Satisfaction with the notion of Happiness is extremely interesting particularly because, while they are not the same, they can engender each other. However, in order for Happiness to come out of Satisfaction, as you have observed in the post about the “promise we make to ourselves”, again this shows how the potential for Happiness comes from choices only we can make for ourselves in setting goals that “put ourselves in a position where the promises we make to ourselves are (realistically) going to naturally satisfy our customers and coworkers” and thus offer us a peaceful, guilt-free outcome in the satisfactory completion of those obligations which thus becomes satisfaction of obligations to our self.

*Note: This was from a time when twenty shillings equaled one pound and ‘six’ represented six pennies of which twelve made a shilling hence “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six” meant that there was a surplus of income over expenditure – albeit only by six pennies.