As people move out of survival and safety mode and up the Maslov pyramid, they generally start pursuing "happiness" as a goal.
I'll be happy when….
But is our obsession with happiness causing us to be unhappy? Is it even the right goal? Do happy business owners and employees perform better in the market?
Happiness Is Overrated
Happiness as a destination is the wrong way to look at it.
If we never know unhappiness we would never do anything different or change.
Try doing one thing that makes you happy. Don't stop. Don't take a break. Continue doing that one thing for the rest of your life. Even if you love free-falling (skydiving) doing that 24/7 without a break will likely become tedious.
If you like singing a song, repeat that song over and over. After a few thousand times in a row you will likely start getting a little antsy; if someone else doesn't ask you to stop much sooner.
Get a puzzle. Put it together. Take it a apart and put it together. Repeat. You cringing yet?
The tension of unhappiness causes us to do something to change. To seek survival, safety, belonging and then happiness…. to create.
Creating Something Different
If Steve Jobs was always happy would Apple exist today?
When people see a different possibility for the future, they are not totally happy with the way it is. That tension helps drive the pursuit of the vision and goal.
What happens when you get there?
You expand your goal, create the next thing or risk becoming irrelevant. Losing your edge.
Happiness Breeds Complacency
Success is one of the biggest risks in business. What got you there will not keep you there.
Happiness is a State
Happiness is a state of mind. Yet it is fleeting.
Even the most positive people will be unhappy at times. It comes with being human.
Happiness is the state of mind you can achieve when you are coming out of unhappiness. The contrast makes it real and noticeable.
The Yin and Yang.
Directly focus on happiness and you likely won't be. It is best observed in the rear-view mirror.
Positive people know how to head back to happiness faster; that it is largely a choice.
You can just be.
Embrace Unhappiness
What makes you unhappy about your business? What makes your customers unhappy?
Fix it and make everyone happy. For a while anyways. Repeat.
