Happiness and how to find it

What happens when you finally get everything you’ve wanted, and you’re still not happy? What happens if you don’t know what makes you happy in the first place? What if you’ve been sold a pup?

It’s no secret, I believe, that the version of sucess we were told would make us happy, turned out to be an empty promise. Big houses, big cars, being always on, always busy. Whole education and career systems pointing at the next level, the next step up - leaving more and more people feeling empty. Definitely not happy!

And yet, this is the world we live in. Most of us can’t completely dis-engage. We have bills to pay, we need to work in the jobs that are on offer, most of us don’t want to be completely maverick and step off the grid completely! So how do we find this balance? How can we keep showing up in the “real” world, while managing our fluctuating expectations and experiences? How can we find our version of happy?

Time and time again, the organisational Leaders I work with, the people I meet in Community, all want to be seen. They all want some version of peace/love/fulfillment. They all want to be happy.

All of us must start with increasing our self-connection. Listening to and heeding our inner voice. Building our self-trust and living and working and communing inline with what we really need and want. Not what the outer world is telling us we need.

But this inner work, this inner knowing is not, for me the destination. Rather, we do our own housekeeping, so that we can show up to be of service in relationship with others, and with our organisations and communities. Our world at large.

For me, happiness equals space. It equals time in nature and time with loved ones. It equals movement, and purpose-led, complex work. It equals laughing and crying and feeling, and sleeping.

And I know that as I live and grow, the specifics of those things may change. The how of my route to happiness might necessarily evolve. And that’s ok!

And so will yours. But start now, get to know what feels good now. Notice where you hear yourself laughing, where and when the tension eases from your body. And do more of that stuff, and less of the stuff that puts the tension there in the first place.

And don’t just listen to me. Here and here are 2 very different Ted talks that might further inspire. Enjoy!

Remember, you deserve to be happy, so go get it. Focus on that as a goal. Success, ironically enough, will follow!