Your Pursuit of Happiness
How happy are you?
What do you consider happiness? What exactly are you pursuing? If you haven’t seen the movie called The Pursuit of Happyness that starred Will Smith then go out after reading this and watch it, it’s incredible.
This blog post is not about that movie, this is about you and helping you find happiness.
For those that have seen the movie then you know that you get to see a man with a little son who loses everything and then has to sacrifice, sacrifice some more, all while keeping his dignity, being strong for his son WHILE out-thinking and out-hustling his peers so that he can provide for his son. While the movie is uplifting, it is also very depressing – depressing because you actually have to witness the struggles that someone has to go through to be successful. Success for the main character in the movie is as simple as survival. For most of us, success is more than surviving. It’s about thriving –and more importantly it’s about being happy.
How do you personally obtain happiness? For some it’s about success at work, for some it’s success at home and for others it’s a balance of both. For me, it’s complicated. It’s about being helpful to others, building a successful business, raising two kids with my wife’s help (lots of help) and enjoying little moments during the craziness along the way.
I’ve earned my baldness and the bags under my eyes!
Sometimes the order of my priorities changes depending on the day but they are in play, ALL THE TIME. That is why I want to help you. In today’s hyper busy times sometimes happiness finds you but most times you have to seek out happiness and prioritize things in your life to find it, so let’s get started. Answer as honestly as possible and I hope you come to your conclusions of how you can find more happiness.
Question #1:What is important to you work wise?
….outside of collecting a fat paycheck. As a recruiter I’ve seen many candidates tell me flat out that they would rather make a move then collect another paycheck from their current Employer. Being rich doesn’t buy you happiness and in most cases the projection of being rich is actually just a hidden house of credit ready to crumble. There’s an old saying “You make your bed, you lie in it”. What bed are you lying in and how did you create that situation?
Next question.
What is important to you location wise?
Do you want to work from home, do you NEED to work from home, love your city or are open to re-location region wise, state wise or open to skipping over to the other side of the country?
What is important to you family wise?
Family normally comes into play in some fashion so start to look at situations that fit your ideal situation.
What is important to you opportunity wise?
Are you looking to manage people, get a promotion, need more mental stimulation, etc? I currently make less money now then I did before but I lead a very happy life, incredibly busy…but happy.
What are you truly passionate about….and can earn a living from?
I grew up wanting to be a Cartoonist but when I realized that I couldn’t draw (a minor draw back) compared to insanely talented artists around me then reality set in and I started exploring other outlets for my creativity.
There are a lot more questions that you could ask yourself but these are the key points that keep coming with professionals that I cross paths with who are trying to improve their level of happiness.
I hope that these questions help you pinpoint where your happiness sweet spot is. For those individuals that are very happy I applaud you and congratulate you on your success. When you’re on your death bed the last thing you will worry about is the titles that you held along the way. It will be more important to know that you enjoyed your life. Are you enjoying your life? Where can it improve?
Do everything in your power to follow your passion and create a situation for yourself that will not fade with time. Instead I hope you find your happiness and that it flames bright with time to the point where every day is a special day!
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