I was raised on this shit... no matter how bad things were, the answer was always that I "needed to think positive", "don't blame others" and generally just make excuses for every single bad thing that happened, and always the fault was mine. Always. It was a nightmare.
In fact, I've lately come to realize that "don't worry, be happy" is largely a mantra constantly repeated entirely for convenience. When I explained to an old friend about how a particular ailment was "written in my bones" (and it totally IS) This is -literally- a matter of molecular physics, something that could not be fixed no matter how hard one might try... And his excuse was "Well that's pretty negative..."
I stopped talking to him after that, because I realized that over the course of the past few months, in every single endeavour I made to get him involved in my plans, to give him something to be happy about...he had given me nothing but excuses to fail... to -not- improve, to roll over and accept misery for my entire life.
I'm old, but I ain't -that old-... This dumb bastard, younger than me, has consigned himself to a metaphorical Hospice.. Just miserable and fat and filling his days with distractions; video games and drugs and pizza and porn, so that he didn't have to be inconvenienced with happiness.
To Hell with that kinda "life".
I love how you phrase "...so that he didn't have to be inconvenienced with happiness." 😋 Trying to achieve goals in life, and actually succeeding, is where happiness is often found, so if someone hinders you in achieving those goals, maybe they're not your fiend after all... Not judging here, I know too little about you both, but as I understand it, you did the right thing.
As always, thanks for reading and commenting @yestermorrow 😊