18: How to Shift the Script from ‘Success’ to ‘Happiness’ | #walkwithme
“Happiness does not consist in having what you want, but in wanting what you have.” – Confucius About This Episode: In terms of your time and emotional energy, what do you focus more on: being successful or being happy? For many of us, it’s the pursuit of success.
“Happiness does not consist in having what you want, but in wanting what you have.”
— Confucius
About This Episode:
In this episode of “#WalkWithMe” I unpack the traditional definition of success as it relates to our pursuit of happiness and offer a simple practical way to discover what can make us truly happy in life.
If you were able to measure all your time and emotional energy, what do you focus more on: being successful or being happy? This COVID crisis has given us a forced pause and the opportunity to reevaluate our values in terms of how we spend our time.
So, let’s be real about where we spend our time. For many of us, it’s the pursuit of success. I believe that the definition of success is really messed up and that we have automatically adopted the world’s view of what it means to be successful.
A common definition comes down to money: the bank balance, how many commas we have, some monetary measure of sorts. Next in line is the material things we have: the watch on our wrist, the car in the driveway, the purse on our shoulder.
For some people, success is defined by a standard compared against others. It’s a moving metric of somebody that we’re constantly comparing ourselves to. For others, success isn’t about money or things but about some idealistic vision of perfection: the perfect mom, the perfect spouse, the perfect co-worker. It comes down to chasing something that doesn’t really exist.
What is your definition of success and how much time are you putting into chasing that standard? So often we get stuck in the “When…then…” conversation: When I get that promotion, then I’ll feel fulfilled. Or, when I have this much money in the bank, then I’ll feel happy.
It’s time to shift our focus from success, to happiness. Success is not linked to happiness; in fact, there’s a bunch of research that shows that happiness can lead to success.
How would you define happiness? We each must carve out our own definition because the reality is that different things make different people happy.
Here’s some practical advice to quickly identify what makes you happy…
Create a “Happiness Mind Map” that answers the question: “What makes me happy?”
And then on a separate sheet of paper, draw a Mind Map that answers: “What makes me unhappy?” Sometimes the key to happiness is becoming aware of what makes you unhappy so that you can eliminate or outsource that.
We can all use this forced pause to ‘shift the script’ from focusing on success, to pursuing what makes us truly happy.
It starts with defining your own definition of happiness. What is yours?
Mentions on the Show:
Information about mind mapping: https://www.mindmapping.com/