Whether happiness may come or not, one should try and prepare one’s self to do without it.

Building a life that only works when things go well is a fragile arrangement. Preparing to manage without does not mean expecting the worst or refusing good fortune when it arrives; it means having a self that is not wholly dependent on the weather. People who have done that quiet work are steadier when something breaks, and freer too, because they need less from any single outcome. It is insurance rather than pessimism.

Find one source of contentment you could rely on if the main ones failed. Work, walking, a craft, a friendship kept in good repair. Building it now is far easier than assembling it in an emergency.