When have we decided that striving for HAPPINESS isn’t cool anymore?
Or was it even ever cool to admit that all you really want in life is to be happy?
Tell me honestly, what’s your ultimate goal in life and business?
Is it to hit the perfect work-life balance? Is it to make lots of money to buy a nice home for you and your family? Is it to make money to be able to go on all the amazing Instagrammable holidays (as soon as we can travel again)?
This is not a post about judging those wanting to make more money and wanting to buy more stuff or experiences. As long as those things truly make you happy, go for it and good luck!
If I’m completely honest, for a while I believed that those things really are the main reason for my hustle. I wanted to be able to travel more, to take more time off to enjoy the world’s wonders and to have lots of new adventures.
The problem is that I thought that I need to work harder (and smarter as well) to make more money to be able to afford my goals. But I never had the time! I was always working. Always chasing the next client, the next bigger project, the next better business model, the NEXT LEVEL and believing that once I get there, I’ll feel satisfied and happy forever.
I was focusing on achieving money affluence while my true desire was to get more time.
Start chasing time affluence
We might not realise it, but time is a very precious currency and we would do much better if we set to focus on having more time affluence over money affluence!
But it’s much easier said than done, I know! There’s one big challenge I see many people facing when it comes to this issue – when is the right time to take a break? To slow down, hit the pause button, reconsider your priorities and maybe decide to stop all together for a moment.
I’ve been wanting to take a break for a while now. A break from day to day hustle and bustle from day to day realities and stresses, from my business and my responsibilities.
I really needed a break to process some things that have happened in my life over the past couple of years and to heal some of the traumas that I’ve been through.
But there never seemed to be the right time to do that. With all the things going on there never seemed to be the right time and place to stop, pause and take a break. There’s always something else that needs my attention, like my clients or my projects focusing on helping my community and my events and my business and my travels and my family and my friends and so on.
Until recently, I used these reasons as an excuse to not take a break, because taking a break wasn’t an easy simple straightforward solution. So I’ve been avoiding it and wishing for it at the same time while using these things as an excuse not to do it right now!
I saw this post earlier today and it really struck a chord with me. And it really made me stop and think about ways to take a break NOW. Slow down NOW. Take more time for me, my health and my hobbies NOW!
Will hard work and money make us happy?
It seems to me that our priorities are a bit out of whack.
Why do we chase work-life balance instead of working towards what’s really meaningful to us? Which to me is simply to be happy. To live a happy, healthy, fulfilled life.
Yes, part of it will naturally be taken by work and business, but it’s so dangerous to simply strive for a balance between life and work and always feel that we’re not getting it right
So, when did striving for HAPPINESS become not cool?
Why don’t we talk more about achieving time affluence over chasing money?
I almost feel that working toward being happy is something to be ashamed of!
Or is it just me that I rarely see people talking about achieving happiness, and instead they are constantly focusing on scaling a business, improving their work-life balance, getting more productive and so on?
Starting to learn to be happier
In the past couple of years, I’ve learned a lot about how to be more focused, how to focus on the one thing, how to be more productive as well as how to work smarter. I’ve learned a lot about how to get better at many things and how to be better as a human being in general. I’ve learnt how to eat and live healthier, how to run faster, to be stronger and so on.
I’ve received a tone of recommendations on brilliant books, podcasts and articles about telling stories, copywriting about marketing, about new trends, new tips and tricks and business growth hacks from my friends and colleagues and from the interesting people on the internet. I’ve listened to many of those, I’ve read many books, helping me to build better habits, get more effective with my admin and to get more done faster.
But throughout all those years. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone tell me to read this book, or listen to this podcast or to do this one thing to be happier.
I can’t remember hearing people talking about HAPPINESS as their main focus in their life and their ultimate goal. And I rarely see anyone recommending a book, podcast or training to learn how to live a more fulfilled and happier life.
Because let’s be honest. Happiness doesn’t just happen. It might sound strange, but feeling happy is a decision. And it’s a decision that we need to consciously make over and over again.
I just want to highlight that I’m aware that it’s not always an easy decision and it’s not always in our immediate reach. It’s a much more complicated conversation when it comes to mental health issues, but that’s a discussion for another day.
I think that I would really appreciate it if I saw more people sharing valuable resources on what we can do more or less to have a happier life. What books or podcasts we can listen to to learn more about good practices, good habits that will make our day-to-day lives filled with more happiness?!
Let’s stop focusing too much on performing better and having a better work-life balance and instead set out our intention of being happier. So in this new chapter of my business and personal journey, I want to seek happiness.
Seeking happiness
I want to explore all the ways we can live happier and healthier lives and I want to help others to seek happiness too!
My new mission going forward will be a lot more connected to helping others be happier in their professional and/or business lives or in the relationship to themselves.
If you want to join me on this journey, read my learnings and takeaways from my own journey, get my favourite resources that helped me along the way and embark on your journey towards happiness, you can join my newsletter!
I’ll still share weekly blog posts and articles, but I’ll include a lot more personal details and practical tips into my fortnightly emails! And I’m also hoping to get into more meaningful conversations via email!
