There’s a few lines in Michael Neill’s book The Inside-Out Revolution where Michael lays out a formula for happiness.

A formula which society would have you believe is as time-honoured as it gets but which anyone who’s paused to reflect for five minutes might realise is actually a load of old cobblers.

That formula?

Struggle + Stress + Strain = Success = Happiness

Michael then picks up his imaginary stick of chalk, dons his mortarboard and simplifies the equation as follows:

Unhappiness = Success = Happiness

Then with a final flourish, Michael simplifies the maths one last time to land at this doozy of what he calls an “oxymoronic formula”:

Unhappiness = Happiness

Good luck solving that.

This section of the book got me thinking about other parts of life where the maths just doesn't add up.

Take overthinking. This is a topic close to my analytical heart and, up until very recently, my default option to find more clarity whenever I faced a big decision or had a tricky problem to solve.

The overthinking formula goes something like:

Analysis + Anxiety = Clarity = Peace of Mind

i.e. Overthinking = Peace of Mind

Then there’s the old comparison trap formula:

Jealousy + Jockeying for Position = Status = Security

i.e. Insecurity = Security

And how can we forget one of my all-time favourites:

Overwork + Exhaustion = Achievement = Fulfilment

i.e. Burnout = Fulfilment

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to life’s equations, I’m giving them a big, fat C minus.

So what should we take away from today’s maths lesson?

Well, it seems to me that when we start down the path of trying to solve our way to happiness, peace of mind, security or fulfilment, we’ve already taken a wrong turn.

We’re already barking up the wrong tree.

It’s when we stop scribbling equations, wipe the chalkboard clean and let our minds settle that what we're searching for starts to appear.

Not because we’ve solved the equation or figured out the formula.

But because what we were searching for was here all along, ready and waiting for us to stop searching.

This idea is something else Michael explores in his book The Inside-Out Revolution. 

If you haven't read it, Amazon is your friend. I highly recommend it.

To fulfilment,

Tom