You Don't Want To Be Happy

One of my mentors works with many wealthy people.

Some of them are billionaires.

One day at lunch I asked him, “What do these people have in common?”

I was looking for a secret to their success.

I was expecting something along the lines of “They worked their asses off.”

Or, “They loved what they did and that’s how they got to where they are.”

But I was met with this instead…

“They’re all miserable. Every single one of them.”

You hear it all the time.

Money is important, but in excess, it won’t make you happy.

Fame and success won’t nourish you.

But most of us ignore those warnings.

Myself included.

We want the big shiny stuff. 

We want more than we need.

We want the recognition.

The respect.

But why do we chase these superficial things when we know they’ll never fulfill us?

Because the truth is: we don’t want to be happy. 

Being happy requires too much work.

And I’m not talking about the ‘hustling’ kind of work.

I mean the internal work.

Happiness requires that we look deep within ourselves.

That we scrutinize the darkest corners of our minds.

That we deal with past trauma and insecurities.

We avoid these because it’s too scary.

It’s too much effort.

It makes us feel too vulnerable.

So we focus on band-aid solutions that don’t require much self-analysis.

Work hard, make boat-loads of money, gain respect.

Repeat.

Until years down the road, we still feel empty...

If you truly want happiness, forget that outer shiny stuff.

Focus inwards instead.

That’s where the real treasure is hiding.

Love,

Matt