The opposite of happiness is boredom, not sadness. Just like the opposite of love is indifference, not hate.
Book: The 4-Hour Workweek
This is from the book The 4-Hour Workweek. The concept here is similar to what Ray Dalio mentioned in his book Principle, “I also feared boredom and mediocrity much more than I feared failure”.
The author Tim Ferriss also argued that the question people usually ask themselves, “What do I want”, is too imprecise to produce meaningful and actionable answers. “What would excite me” is a better question than “What do I want” or “What are my goals” since excitement is a more practical synonym for happiness.