Why is JOY an inside job?

Countless times, you will hear people say that if they had something or someone, lived in a certain town or country, or if they worked in some job, they would be joyful and contended. Well, experience has taught me that once you peg your happiness on external factors such as someone or something, you will never achieve it. Kids will cry for weeks, demanding a bicycle or PS4, but a few weeks or months after they have them, they get bored and start crying over something new. This is human nature. It is from such observations that I learned that joy is an inside job.
 
What is joy?
Joy, in my understanding, is being happy in spirit, body, with others and nature, too. It is the state of appreciating everything and having no regrets or bad feelings. As you can tell from this definition, happiness must start from within you. It is only then that you will be able to appreciate everything else around you. Have you heard the saying that, “you cannot serve from an empty cup?” Now, if you are not happy with yourself, how will you see anything else positively?
 
You first
Most of you will agree with me that the biggest enemy of joy is having expectations. If you give people the power to control the factors that make you happy, then you better forget it. At times, your spouse will let you down. Friends will stab you in the back. Some will not pay what they owe you. Family can even disown you. However, there is no single time when you will do any of these things to yourself. Put yourself first. Then if other people choose to add to your joy, let it be a bonus: not the source of your contentment!
 
Tune your mindset
Common as it may sound, the “half-empty, half-full” phenomenon still holds water. Your manner of approaching life and/or reacting to events in your life can determine if you have joy or not. Maybe you do not have a car, but can readily afford good food, shelter and education. You may choose to appreciate what you have, or gloom over the luxuries that you do not have, yet.
 
If material things define your joy, you risk chasing it all your life because once you have one thing; you will require an even higher thing. However, if you treat what you already have as the best treasures of the world, trust me, you will ooze joy wherever you go.
 
Stop comparing yourself
Someone will always have a better house than you. Someone will always have better looks than you. Someone will always run faster than you.  In short, there will always be someone ahead of you. Now, that does not mean that you go around belittling yourself, saying how X and Y are ahead of you. In life, someone is always ahead of everyone.
 
Therefore, cherish yourself, together with your abilities, because if you decide to compare yourself with others, those who are more advantaged than you will be a curse to you. You will feel insignificant and end up losing your joy.
 
In a nutshell, it has to start within you; joy is an inside job!