in Life Lessons

How to Be Happy Right Now

The greatest pursuit in life isn’t money or fame. But it is the pursuit of happiness.

We often confuse between a means goal and an end goal.

An example of a means goal is making money and exercising regularly.

An end goal is the reason why you do it in the first place.

Why make more money? To have more options. To be able to know that everything is taken care of.  But what is it that you want to take care of? Yourself? Your family?

Why exercise regularly? To keep fit and to be healthy. For what? To be able to enjoy life and take care of our loved ones.

The end goal should always be at the top of our heads.

Means goals are the fancy ones. The ones that sell. Lamborghinis & Rolexes.

End goals aren’t so sexy. Feeding your family, loving your family.
It’s not glamorous but it gives you the reason to stay in the game.

End goals are to be your focus if you want to be happy right now.

Delaying happiness is stupid at best and destructive at worst.

All you ever needed was around you. But you rather wait and claim it once the dust is settled.

There is a TED Talk titled Be A Man and the speaker, Joe Ehrmann who has been at many deathbeds during his service always heard the same two questions spoken by men in their final moments (and it wasn’t about the things they owned):

  • Love
    Was I a great father, husband, son?
  • Legacy
    Will I remembered? What have I contributed for the betterment of the world? What footprint did I leave behind?

These questions are real and true and it gives a you a perspective on what people in their limited time genuinely cared about.

Warren Buffett was once asked in an interview what his definition of success was and he said that having a big bank account doesn’t make you successful. He has met many wealthy people who are depressed and hated by their families.

To him, the definition of success was simple – that the people who you wished love you love you.

He said money can buy sex, but it can’t buy love.

Some of you may say, “Easy for him to say, he has $60 billion!.”

Well, it is exactly because he is very wealthy that he is qualified to say it.

Would you take him seriously if he were poor?

What is your definition of success? Or put another way what warms your heart?

Tony Robbins, the life strategist, was given a task to take a quadriplegic man who became that way on his honeymoon with his wife after he dived wrongly into the hotel swimming pool and broke his neck. He can barely move clench his hands and can’t feel anything from the chest down. His wife has to change his diapers everyday and his catheter every 2 hours.

When Tony was asked to turn their lives around, he had to question his beliefs on what makes a great life and his conclusion (which I suggest you write down somewhere) is AN EMOTIONALLY RICH LIFE.

So what he did was take them to sky dive. It was a first for the both of them. It was unreal.

After that, they made the guy play murderball – a sport played by wheelchair bound players, and he succeeded in going through it.

He wrapped it up by re-enacting their wedding ceremony on stage with the same people present in their previous ceremony.

It was a spectacle to behold and a great lesson to learn.
In that, life can take away something from you. But how you react to it is what makes the difference.

You either be mad or depressed, or look to the bright side and practice happiness regardless.

You can start being happy now by knowing that tomorrow is unknown and that what is certain is the present day.

Keep working towards your goal, but don’t let it be an excuse for you to not be happy.

3 years of being unhappy so that you can enjoy a moment of achievement?

What ever happened to singing in the shower?
Or laughing hard at a joke?
Or dance like a moron while listening to your favourite song?

It was all emotion. The things that make you feel alive was all emotionally rich.

To wrap up:

  • Remember the bigger picture: Love & Legacy.
  • Live an emotionally rich life.

“Every day set out to be the happiest person on the planet.” – Tony Robbins

Can’t go wrong with that.

Live a life of emotion and practice happiness now.

*****

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I am currently in the process of writing my next post – “How to Achieve Any Goal Easily”.
It covers more than the conventional SMART goal tactics, like you, I’m not looking for good advice, I want advice that works.

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