It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.

The remark frames happiness not as a lucky accident but as a skill that begins with self-knowledge. Ball suggests that many people struggle less because happiness is unattainable than because they cannot identify what genuinely satisfies them—confusing habit, approval, or ambition with contentment. Calling it “a helluva start” emphasizes that recognition is only the first step: once you can name what makes you happy, you can make choices that protect and pursue it. The line also carries an implicitly pragmatic, hard-won tone—happiness is treated as something to be clarified and cultivated amid life’s pressures rather than passively awaited.