My posts came across as hostile, which was not the original intent and out of habit i jumped to tear apart you through your response. Wether or not i was right is irrelevant, and the reasoning meaningless, even to myself. Let's just leave it at that and i'll be more considerate in the future.
The inherent difficulty of discussing happiness: happiness is a word that covers so much:
Happiness is when I'm going out with friends.
Happiness is when I'm devouring my favorite food.
Happiness is when I'm in love.
Happiness is when I just bought a nice car.
Happiness is when I'm playing basketball.
Out of all of these the most important happiness in my life is living with purpose, more specifically my work. I can sacrifice my social life, food, money, car and basketball for it. Love though, is as important as purpose. These two components of happiness are lasting and transcends all.
Happiness is when I'm going out with friends.
Happiness is when I'm devouring my favorite food.
Happiness is when I'm in love.
Happiness is when I just bought a nice car.
Happiness is when I'm playing basketball.
In my opinion all of the above are joyfullness, not happiness. Except maybe "Happiness is when I'm in love." To me, that's true happiness
Out of all of these the most important happiness in my life is living with purpose, more specifically my work. I can sacrifice my social life, food, money, car and basketball for it. Love though, is as important as purpose. These two components of happiness are lasting and transcends all.
What happiness will you find when you are retired? I'm not really quibbling with you - I think life has a purpose and in that purpose is happiness.