The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.

Put two people in the same circumstances and they often report different lives, which means circumstances are only half the story. Disposition does as much of the work: what you notice first, how quickly you recover, whether you expect things to be all right. That is not a reason to blame anyone for their unhappiness. It is a reason to attend to the half that is not about your situation at all.

If you are waiting for conditions to improve before you feel better, test the other side. Change something small in how you spend your attention this week: sleep, company, exercise, what you read first in the morning.