“Oh fuck.”
Is what I thought about two years ago when in a moment I actually realised that money doesn’t lead to happiness.
Sure, we’ve all been told this. But does a young entrepreneur really believe it? Or is this a lesson some of us have to learn experientially?
I’d worked my ass off for a long time to get my income to a level that I was happy with; I had the house and car I wanted, and I found myself thinking about another car I wanted.
That’s when I caught myself.
Delaying my happiness to an event in the future.
It’s tempting to do, because it takes the responsibility off being happy now.
And there’s always another ‘thing’ to get.
I’m glad I realised at the age of 36 that delaying happiness for a future event is a hiding to nothing.
Because I’ve got a lot more years to work on being as happy as I know how in the moment.
One of the greatest lies we tell ourselves is that we’re falling behind. That someone else is ahead.
As a young man I associated strength with force; louder voices, sharper opinions, firm lines in the sand.
There’s a strange kind of pride we’ve developed in being exhausted. But even lions, the king of the jungle, rest.
I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have ambition.
We sometimes believe strength means self-sufficiency — that being independent means being isolated.
We often try to outrun the storm, emotionally, physically, spiritually.
We’re entering an age where machines do our thinking before we’ve even had a chance to try.
In church the other day, the pastor gave a sermon that really stuck with me. He talked about two people.