Happiness and achievement are independent variables. We treat them as if they move on the same line, as if enough achievement eventually converts into happiness, like currency you can exchange once you hit a certain amount. But they are not measuring the same thing as achievement measures distance traveled against a goal, and happiness measures the quality of your relationship with the present moment, regardless of where you are on that journey. This is why you can hit the milestone and feel nothing. And why you can be in the middle of something unfinished, uncertain, maybe even failing, and still feel genuinely alive.

There is a danger is not pursuing achievement and the danger is outsourcing your happiness to it, deciding in advance that joy is conditional on arrival. That bargain rarely pays out the way we expect, because the goalposts move the moment we reach them. The promotion becomes the next promotion. The number becomes a bigger number. I think we should be happy to be happy, achieve to achieve. Let each one stand on its own terms instead of asking one to justify the other. The person who can do this isn't settling for less, they are refusing to make their peace of mind conditional on outcomes they can't fully control.