Happiness is not the purpose of life. We are not meant to be happy. We are specifically created to be resolutely unhappy. This is not to say we are meant to be miserable but to say that we are not meant to achieve happiness. This is evidenced more and more as we achieve our goals that we have decided will make us happy. Upon reaching such goals, we find ourselves dissatisfied, looking for the next 'flaw' in our lives to fix in order to achieve that ever elusive happiness we are so certain we want and need.
The truth is that happiness is meant only to be a carrot. A motivation for all our efforts. And only at the end of our journey can we even hope to achieve it.
What we should come to strive for in our daily lives isn't happiness. That is our 'reward' on our deathbed, if we have lived our lives well. We should seek personal contentment. We should be content in who we are and what we have. We should strive to create adventures in our lives and to experience existence.
THAT is our purpose. To experience. Not to mindlessly pursue what cannot be achieved with any amount of concerted effort. To simply be and to appreciate what is.
All this effort and attention and focus on happiness is a large part of the problem with society, as a whole, and in individual parts, today. There's so much emphasis on ACHIEVING happiness that people forget to live their lives or to stand up for what is right. They forget what the point of it all is and they are wiling to trade ANYTHING for even a fleeting moment of a feeling they can mistake for 'happiness'.
Stop talking about being happy or doing what makes you happy. It's a lie. It is the 'cake'. Stop trying to make others happy, you will only ever disappoint. Seek to know you. Seek to experience your life. Seek to be content. Seek to be free. Seek to exist.