Let me ask you a simple question.
What is it that you want?
Most frequently, what people want are things like: Wealth, health, freedom, status, their own business, that perfect partner, a dog, Lamborghini, you name it.
What do all these things have in common?
What all these things ultimately lead to?
Yes. Everything we ultimately want in life is happiness.
(Follow the breadcrumb trail if you don’t believe me).
I want to share with you an idea worth pondering.
An idea that could make you happier, more often, more reliably.
Single bet happiness
If happiness is THE ULTIMATE gain, then we could look at it as any other gain.
Let’s pick something we all are very familiar with… Moneyyyz.
Imagine you’re an investor (maybe you are) and you want to invest in a startup, stock, etc. Let’s say you have a considerable amount of money.
How would you go about it?
Would you put all your money into one investment? I hope not. That would be risky. If it flops, you’re going to lose everything.
Happiness is a bit similar to investing money, and people often make the same mistake: They put all their eggs in one basket.
In other words: I see people investing their happiness in (making it conditional on) one thing: Business, partner, future achievement, or other dreams.
“When I achieve xyz, then I’ll be happy.”
… and so…
“If I don’t achieve that, I won’t be happy.”
And they are not just saying it. They really feel it.
The biggest challenge with such an approach is that not only one is constantly worried that either they will not achieve it = never be happy, OR, when they finally get it, they worry about losing it. I’m sure you know someone like that.
So rather than being happy, they are living in fear regardless whether they have that one thing or not.
It’s a bit like being in a casino and placing all your money on one bet.
You would not put all your money on one bet, would you?
So why would you bet all your happiness on one outcome?
What a terrible and risky way to live.
Happiness Combo Bet
Betting your happiness on one outcome is unwise.
But it can be worse. Oh yeah! Sometimes I see people making their happiness conditional on the perfect combination of achievements: Living in a villa in Bali, driving a specific car, being with a specific (looking) person, xyz… and then, then they’ll be happy.
Flashback time…
“In my late teens, I used to go to sports betting agency to place crazy bets. I didn’t want to bet much money and I didn’t know anything about sports teams and all that (I still don’t know much), so I had to gamble (unlike everyone else… chuckle). The way I did it was that I picked extremely high odds games and stacked 10-20 on one ticket. The bet multiplied with every new game, so if I hit it, I’d get 10,000s multiple (and so unlikely were the odds for it to happen). Even though I bet an equivalent of about $1, if the stars aligned (I see there’s a subtle pun) I’d cash out about $5000. Needless to say, it never happened. “
The lesson is this: The more you stack the odds against you, the less likely you’ll win.
The less likely you’ll make happiness possible, well, the less likely you’ll be happy.
(Sometimes the reality is just that simple).
How to Diversify Your Happiness
Life is so much more colourful and opportunity-full (is it a word?) than we let ourselves to believe.
If you want to be truly happy, you need to learn how to diversify your happiness.
Just as with investment (or betting) you want to diversify your portfolio, so you have the highest odds of succeeding and minimal odds of losing.
One way to hedge against that would be to diversify your money into several opportunities as it will also diversify your risk. Unless you’re a terrible (happiness) investor or really unlucky, it’s quite unlikely that everything you invested in flops.
Plain and simple, have many things that make you happy.
People, hobbies, activities, things, etc.
Just as with investment, you’ll probably have your favourite “horses”, and then you’ll have a few that you love as well, but they are just not on the top of your happiness list.
Things change.
Life gives and takes.
People come and go.
When you diversify your happiness, you’ll experience it more often.
If you want to truly win in life, learn how to be happy every day.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 3 ways I can help you make improvements to your life.
1) Take The Lifestyle Scorecard
This FREE Lifestyle Scorecard will help you understand which areas of your life need improvement.
2) Join my Unbreakable Self-Discipline Bootcamp
Click Here to join the next group of my 12-weeks workshop designed to help you improve your self-discipline.
3) Work with me privately
If you’d like to work with me privately 1:1, get all my support, regular sessions and more… just message me HERE and let’s talk.
I like this one Tomas.
Hi Matz, thanks for the comment. I’m glad. 🙂
All good Tomas – to meet it’s like getting pleasure from different aspects of your life as part of being a more rounded person.
You’re totally right Ronnie. 🙂 Thanks for the comment.