I think true happiness often can really only come from developing a skill; to be an old school artisan is the way forth.
This is an idea I'd dismissed at first, 'work is worship' and all that jazz, as some propaganda by the classes incl. and above the bourgeoisie.
I then the same illustrated by Alan Watts, and illustrated beautifully some months back in Oatmeal.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/unhappy
... and then I realized both were true. Words are both the instruments of the savior and the devil.