Most everyone likes to be happy, and most of us, are able to find parts of our day, or areas of our life, which will make us happy, most of the time. The thing is that in order to be happier, far more often, and feel far better about having that happiness, people need to gravitate more to those activities that are more fulfilling and of more lasting meaning, as compared to something or other that just deals almost exclusively with sense pleasures, such as eating, or sexuality.
That is to say, while many of us get great joy from eating delicious food, or from the pleasure of good sexuality, each of these activities, are subject to having a peak period of that happiness, invariably followed by an eventual return to our basic baseline. In other words, the sensory experience that we are receiving in the present might well make us feel fantastic, but it does not last; and our remembrance of it, won't be able to bring us back to the peak feelings that we had in and of that moment in time.
So then, as much as we might delight in the wonderful sensory experiences of various activities, each of those things ultimately are transitory in nature and basically requires us to repeat such, in order to retrieve again those happy feelings; and even when repeated, the happiness that we are desiring to get, may not be at the level of the past, or even really hitting the level that we were hoping for.
On the other hand, there is a different sort of happiness that lies beyond mere sensory gratification, in which, that happiness requires a more giving attitude and the relating of ourselves to other people, of which, by risking something of value, such as our reputation or our personality with another, we put ourselves in the open position to gain something in return from them, because having valued them as a whole person, we thereby recognize that by connecting deeply with one another, that each of us can thereby help the other to benefit in tangible as well as intangible ways.
That is why we want to be with other people, because with those other people, they can help us to expand our limited horizons as well as to aid and augment us in learning those things that have lasting attributes, so that we are better able to adapt and to grow in this world. So too, the interplay with one trusting person to another, allows us to play and to experiment with them in a manner in which stifling judgment has been accorded a backseat, so that the trying out of new things and new avenues, can be attempted.
Additionally, lasting happiness, unlike sensory happiness, is only possible, by finding things of merit and worth, that lie outside of our control, and which necessitates our interaction with other people, perhaps in the pursuit of a noble objective, that benefits society in a manner that could not have happened without our necessary contribution, of which, the joy and satisfaction that we helped to create, mirrors back to our own self. So that, happiness isn't really about what happens to you, rather, it is more about what you do, that helps to create happiness for another, and that thereby makes us feel happy for our voluntary involvement and contribution to accomplishing exactly that.