Let me ask you a question: what are the things that stand between you and complete happiness? I can think of many personally, but it's different for everyone. It's all rooted from what "happiness" means to us as individuals, but there are true similarities among the obstacles everyone faces, no matter what our happiness includes.

"Fear" is a common obstacle we will all face when seeking success and happiness. The fear of standing out may hold us back when it comes to our academic and career pursuits. The fear of messing up will add even more anxiety to the process of striving to be the best. The fear of not being treated as an equal may keep someone from a minority group or a woman from reaching his or her full potential.

The next major obstacle is time. We all feel like we're racing the clock -- like we have to graduate on time or land the perfect job right at that perfect moment. That we have to find the love of our lives when everyone else is, or that the sooner we are successful, the sooner we can be happy.

But the truth is that happiness doesn't work on a schedule. And it's definitely not supposed to come easy or comfortably. There will be times that we are scared. We won't want to go to that meeting or give that presentation. What if people don't take us seriously? What if it doesn't go well? What if I fail?

We won't want to challenge someone else for the things we want. We may think: I don't want to take this job from someone else. We may be afraid to be the best in our classes and seem like the teacher's pet. We don't want people to think we're coming in the way of them and their happiness.

However, our individual happiness comes at a price. It's not going to be easy to find that blissful lifestyle we all want. We have to work hard for what we see in our visions of a perfect life. There will be moments in our careers, our education, our relationships and just everyday life when happiness seems so far away.

There will be moments when we will want to give up and think it's too far from reach. There will be moments when we're so happy that we forget happiness can be temporary. And there will be moments when we're so down that we forgot we were ever happy in the first place.

We must remember that happiness isn't black and white. We will have days when life kicks us in the butt and everything we've worked so hard to accomplish will come toppling down. There will be times when we believe we've reached true happiness that will be watered down by a bad day or a bad conversation. That's why it's important to note the difference between real happiness and fake happiness.

Real happiness means we know the bad days will come -- the rejections, the let-downs. We know we don't have that perfect life. Real happiness is knowing that we're good people. That we've made one person smile today and that may have been the best part of his or her day. Real happiness is being okay with being uncomfortable or terrified or even making a big mistake.

Real happiness is knowing ourselves and knowing that no matter what we face, we're trying our best.