Today I’m going to dispel a few myths about where happiness comes from.

Myths which are as common as a penny in a fountain, but which also happen to be so back to front that they’re no different to leaving your house with your shirt inside-out and each of your trainers on the wrong foot.

Sitting comfortably?

Let’s begin.

Myth #1: More money leads to a happier life

I don’t need to spend too long on this one.

Yes, you could reasonably say that more money leads to a more comfortable life.  If by comfortable you mean flying Business Class, driving a 4x4 or holidaying in Val-d’Isère.

But remember, we’re talking about happiness here.

It won’t take you long to find a washed-up CEO, miserable billionaire or disillusioned national lottery winner to see that money doesn’t equal happiness.

In fact, it often equals the opposite.

Moving on…

Myth #2: Hitting your goals leads to a happier life

This is an interesting one.

Sometimes it seems like hitting your goals does lead to a happier life.

Learning a language, running a marathon or mastering a new party trick can certainly lead to a sense of achievement or moments of happiness.

But, if you want, you can set all the goals you like, do pretty much nothing and still be completely happy. 

I’m sure we all know people like this.

You might’ve even experienced this yourself.

Onwards and downwards:

Myth #3: Getting a promotion at work leads to happiness

I don't think this is any different.

It's easy to assume that a promotion will lead to a greater sense of happiness.  I've fallen into this trap myself.

But the joy of a promotion is usually short & sweet and the extra responsibility & stress tend to stick around for much longer.

Anyway, I could go on listing other myths & examples like finding your ideal partner, buying your dream house or having the perfect body.

But that'll do for now.

When you put this all together, the bottom line is this:

Often the things we think will make us happy don't actually make us happy and quite often make us less happy.  And this can leave us in a bit of a sticky wicket.  

So if happiness is what we're looking for, where should we look?

Well, what if happiness wasn’t something we went on a mission to try to find?  What if happiness wasn't always somewhere in the future?  And what if we didn’t even need a reason to be happy?

What if, instead, the route to happiness was via the happiness we already have within us?

This way, happiness wouldn’t be delivered by an object, a situation, a person or a result.  There wouldn’t be anything you need to do or to have in order to be happy.

Instead, your happiness would be absolutely, categorically, 100% independent of what’s happening in the outside world…

It would always be available (right now, in this very moment)…

It would be something you can tap into, bring with you and share whenever you wanted...

And from this place you can sally forth and do whatever you want to do in the world.

I’ll leave you with that thought for the day.

 - Tom

p.s. I recently watched a YouTube video with the writer, philosopher and modern-day guru Rupert “the Spiralizer” Spira which explored this very idea.

The video delved into how to navigate the world when we're not using the pursuit of happiness as our compass.

If you’d like a link to the video, I’ll send it with you.

But I’m asking for a small something in return:

What was the last video you watched on YouTube?

Hit reply, let me know, and I’ll ping the link to the Spiralizer's video straight over to you