My view of it is that the pursuit of happiness is much more a desire for progress and ownership than an actual state of well-being

This speak volume.

This makes happiness not in the present but, a reflection of the past of a point in time that was intense enough that there wasn't the opportunity to consider the feelings of doing it.

There is a saying that life must be lived forwards and understood backwards through introspection/reflection. It's in those moments we evaluate our experience/life. And the resulting effect from such a process is either regret or happiness