The ability to control your behavior is foundational for happiness.
25 years old is already the “third quarter” of your life: don’t wait.
That’s a big question. And as an entrepreneur with two companies focused on applied happiness and human flourishing research, I’ve spent a lot of time looking for an answer. I remember first setting my mind to this.
I read books by successful people, reviewed wellbeing research, and asked mentors for advice.
One of the first answers I got: goal setting. You need to set goals, SMART goals, and write them down. Then you need to 10X them. If you want to make $100K you need to aim for $1M.
Then I read more and talked to a business strategy professor. He said forget goals.
Most business (and life) plans fail because the plan is not implementable. It’s not about goals, it's about strategy. You need to focus on inputs not outputs.
That made sense until I came across a new thought, if you don’t manage your time your strategy won’t matter either. Time is your ultimate resource. How you manage your time across your strategies and activities is what matters.
But, then again, what if you don’t know how to spend your time?
You can set the goals, make the strategies, and manage your time – but what if it’s all wrong? If you don’t have the right information, your time management is doomed from the start.
So I finally decided. It’s knowledge. The key to all success and happiness in life is knowledge. You need to know how to get what you want: playbooks, principles, and recipes. Knowledge is power.
Believe me?
Well, you shouldn’t because I’m wrong again! Could it possibly be just knowledge?
Think about it… You can probably name 3-5 things you could start doing more of or less of right now that would, without a doubt, make you happier. You should sleep more, stress less, meditate a bit, doom scroll social media less often, spend more time with friends, etc. Now, are you doing it?
I see ads on my social media every day with gurus who have a seven figure dropshipping company, six pack abs, and a “millionaire manifestation mindset”. So why aren’t we all perfect 10s with a million bucks in our jeans?
What if we all just joined their $10,000 mastermind groups – could it be so simple? Is that the key to unlocking the age of enlightenment and abundance for all?
I’m going to wager probably not…
Knowledge isn’t enough. The problem isn’t knowing, it’s doing.
When I built my happiness course at the University of Alabama, I quipped that I’d have one lecture on happiness and the next 9 weeks would be on how to actually do something about it.