[simonster]

At some point in high school, I realized that the reason I was unhappy was that I was suppressing my feelings and ignoring what they were telling me. Instead, I needed to learn how to predict my feelings in advance and guide my behavior and thoughts proactively to avoid feeling unhappy.

The kind of "confidence" that is important to happiness is very specific. Overall, I'm less confident and more anxious than the average person. What I can do is convince myself that I'm making the best decisions for myself under the circumstances I find myself in. As long as I can make optimal decisions without feeling strong negative emotions, I simply don't have to feel those emotions. For me, happiness is not "lack of a persistent itch to do things differently" — what is important is that, if I have a persistent itch to do things differently, I actually follow it.