How do you get Happy as an Audiophile?

+1 all of the above, especially @bigtwin 

i ’am’ happy as an audiophile. don’t need to ’get’ happy.

--when i anticipate listening as i am doing other things, i am happy.

--if one of my audio buddies calls me i am happy to talk hifi.

--surfing and posting hifi forums away from listening i am happy.

---i found a 3000 Lp classical collection a month ago, which was shipped to me. i have it upstairs in my barn. one of my all time greatest audio pleasures is to grab 7 or 8 random Lp’s i’ve never heard, bring them downstairs and one by one clean and then listen to new Lp music, read the jackets, maybe look up data on line, and sit back and travel the music world while i listen. i might take a few listening sessions to sample pieces of these Lps. i get lost into it. makes me so happy.

---i surf Quboz for music to sample, then use their interface to try related recordings. i can do this for hours. it brings me pleasure.

---sometimes i will just listen to my core reference recordings. or put together a play list and lay back. makes me happy.

----i have 4 turntables and sometimes i will grab a few records and play one side on each different turntable. love to hear what they bring differently to the music.

---i have a sofa and three chairs in my listening room since i often have listening visitors. 7 seats. i have another 10 chairs i can bring in. my plan is to have people visit. makes me happy. nothing like a great communal listening session.

---i can be a gear head sometimes; it’s fun to try new gear and think about new gear, but not all the time. but right now i’m about to retire, so i’m assessing my long term system plans and making some choices. i enjoy this process as long as i don’t need to be in any hurry. it’s fun considering new gear. it’s a means to an end, not the end pleasure. but pretty things can be fun and bring happyness. a matter of balance.

--i listen 30+ hours a week in my dedicated 2 channel room. no TV in there. i have no grandkids. wish i did. my life and listening would be different in that case. but it’s not. my wife of almost 48 years is supportive and understanding of my hifi/music enjoyment. so it works for my life. i’m not hiding from my problems. and life balance is important to being happy with being an audiophile. i am happy that i can be at ease when i listen.

i could go on and on.

When first building systems many years ago, suffered much angst in the many failures. Certainly there were successes as well. This success/failure cycle repeated a number of times, rather manic depressive in my reaction. OCD was certainly in play here as well. Then came a point, several years ago when this psychic merry-go-round was greatly alleviated. It happened organically, of it's own accord once system didn't require much psychic energy to imagine live performers in room.

While I continue to experiment with system, success and failures continue, base line sound quality of my system allows consistent pleasure. The failures much less important to me now,  I can find happiness in the process these days.

For me, suffering was necessary in the pursuit of pleasure, happiness. I presume all audiophiles suffer to some extent, depends on how much a perfectionist one is.

And I'm not sure happiness as an emotion can exist in world devoid of suffering, discontent.

How does it make me happy? I do up some cannabis, put on some tunes, sit back, and..... happy!!!! 😁

Also like @jerryg123 's answer!!! 🤣

I'm told it's a Buddhist principal; No expectations! It's the only way I've been able to get through the past few years. It works. I've found I have more good days than bad. When the phone rings and it's bad news, I take it in stride. I sleep better now.