3 Simple Truths About Happiness

There are alot of things you can invest your time into, you could join a gym, read a great novel, take a yoga class, or learn a new language. So why invest time into being happier?

After all, doesn’t happiness just happen when you achieve your goals, make more money, and learn new stuff? It’s not like you can just go out and create happiness right?

Well that’s what I used to think. I used to think that if I worked hard and did my best happiness would just happen to me. All I needed to do was find a great job, get an amazing girlfriend, live in a super hip modern apartment with my perfect cuddly cat and then I’d be happy.

And so, I got to work. I went out and looked for the right job, the right girl, the right everything. But on my quest to find happiness, I discovered three powerful truths:

Truth #1: Getting what you want is hard
Every job I’ve ever had was cool for a while, but eventually I’d get bored with it. And while I dated some amazing women, each time they didn’t really fit my picture of my perfect girlfriend. Even worse, all the cat’s I had scratched things they shouldn’t and pooped in places where poop doesn’t belong.

Over time I realized that getting what you want takes way more work and time then you might expect. But I didn’t let that deter me. Instead, I vowed to work harder. And because of this and a little bit of luck, there were a few times when I managed to wrangle my perfect life. And that’s when I encountered the second powerful/painful truth.

Truth #2: Nothing lasts
Even when things were great they would only stay that way for a week or a month and then something would change. I would get a new boss at work that wasn’t as cool, my girlfriends ‘cute’ little habits would start getting on my nerves, and my cat would start scratching my couch.

Luckily I’m a really smart guy 😉 so it only took me about 28 years of doing this again and again before I realized that it wasn’t working. I realized that despite all my hard work I was failing to create the kind of happiness in my life that I longed for. It felt like I was in a hamster wheel with the happiness cheese dangling just out of reach.

And that’s when I started to think about the times in my life when I was really happy.

  • I remembered the times I’d spent hiking in the wilderness, the cool breeze rustling the branches, while the sun crept overhead.
  • I remembered going to concerts, where the music uplifted me and I danced so hard that I forgot who I was.
  • I remembered those moments with friends having quiet and wishful conversations inside foggy cars at 10 o’clock at night.

And the more I remembered the more I realized that in these moments happiness seemed effortless.
Moreover, they didn’t seem like the outcome of hard work and achieving goals. Instead, they seemed to burst forth from each breath, because I was engaged, I was present, and I was alive.

I started to wonder whether or not I’d been going about this whole happiness thing all wrong. I started to wonder what if instead of waiting for happiness to happen, I created it instead

And so I set out to discover how to create happiness, not just once I got where I was going, but every step along the way.

This journey led me to travel in India, to live in a Zen monastery, to study habits, to write about my challenges and work with amazing people to help them create happiness in their lives one day at a time. And it’s through this journey that I discovered the last and biggest truth about happiness.

Truth #3: You Create Your Happiness
Along my journey, I found again and again that happiness doesn’t have to be this illusive thing that you search for. In fact, happiness is something you can create in simple ways everyday.

  • Happiness isn’t about being super positive (I’m not naturally)
  • It’s not about having lots of stuff (often people with less have more)
  • And it’s not about being perfect (the happiest you is the person you already are)

And so, I’ve done my best over the last few years to share these simple tools to create happiness. But recently I’ve realized that’s not enough. I’ve come to see that if you really want to be happy you have to commit. You have to decide to invest some real time into mastering the tools, the habits, and the practices that create lasting happiness.

And so today, I’m challenging you to invest 30 days this year into being truly happy.

I’m challenging you to invest 30 days into learning the tools that have helped people for thousands of year live happy lives.
I’m challenging you to be the kind of person that generates happiness not just for yourself, but for everyone you touch.

But I don’t expect you to do it alone. To help you in two weeks I’m launching my 30 Day Happiness Challenge.

Basically what I’ve done is taken everything I’ve learned on my journey, everything I’ve written about in my blog, everything that I’ve used to help my clients and distilled it into 30 days of information about how to live more simply, mindfully, and happily.

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Here is what challenge will cover:

Phase 1: Awareness – Awareness is the key to change. If you see it, then you can change it.

In this phase, you’ll learn to pay attention to your mind, your emotions, and your life. You’ll discover the sources of innate happiness you already have, as well as any obstacles that are standing in your way so that you can feel happier about your life as it is right now and gain the clarity to get where you need to go.

Phase 2: Self Care – You are your greatest resource, which means part of being happy learning to take care of yourself.

In this phase, you’ll learn the simple habits that the worlds most successful and happy people use to feel better and do more everyday, so that you can wake up feeling energized and go to bed feeling blessed.

Phase 3: Simplification – One of happiness’s biggest enemies is complexity. The more complicated your life is, the harder it is to enjoy and the easier it is to lose track of what matters.

In this phase, you’ll learn how to simplify your life, your mind, and your home so that you can keep track of your keys, as well as you values.

Phase 4: Relationships – You haven’t been doing all this work just to make yourself happy, but to share your joy with the people you care about.

In this phase you’ll learn to listen deeply, speak compassionately, and connect authentically so that you can feel the joy that comes from sharing your life and your happiness with those around you.

Are you ready to be happy?

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