Answering Life Coaching Questions
Part of the series of answering questions from clients. Hope this helps!
Happiness First? Or Money First?
Amazing Life Lesson #11
Money does not equal happiness
More than 80% of the responses to our survey on self-improvement-lounge.com indicated that lack of (or insufficient) money was the biggest challenge faced today.
This is a scenario many face, and one I have struggled with before. Let’s look at this from a different point of view.
Many of my coaching clients initially believed the biggest roadblock to happiness was lack of money. So did I.
The answer to the biggest roadblock to more money is not enough happiness. Again…the biggest roadblock to more money is not enough happiness.
This answer hurts – and makes the problem even bigger for many! But in reality this answer creates amazing opportunities in your life!
I hear it all the time: "How can I be happy when I am struggling to pay the bills?"
And quite simply the solution is "choose to be happy".
Remember the half full/half empty glass scenario. Which do you normally choose? Bright or dark? Up or down? Good or bad? Depressed or happy?
A very simple test is to frown and try to smile. Then smile in the mirror and try to be depressed.. …You can’t do it.
So why do we not choose to be happy? And what does money have to do with happiness?
Next time…
Coach Miami
Happiness is Creating Your Life!
For years I have been writing about happiness. What it is, where to find it, how to keep it, and how to share it.
The more time goes by, the more certain I am happiness is what we all really want.
And I also believe the more we all tie happiness to having money, the less happy we will be.
Speaking only for myself now – I feel the most alive and happy when I am super excited about a new project, goal or journey.
There is something extremely attractive in a new challenge.
When we built our first sailboat. When we built the horse farm we currently live on. When I went to sea for the first time. When I took the engineer crew position on a 165 foot mega yacht in Acapulco Mexico. When I joined the Navy and to serve on nuclear submarines. When I met my wife.
All these and many more are dreams manifested to reality. Manifested means I was so passionate I would do anything to get there!
Our newest goal is to go back to the cruising life – and share it with our two sons – Ian who is 16 and Ryan who is now 9. I want to show them there is a whole another world of people, places and cultures beyond their current experience.
With the challenge of manifesting such a dream comes work. Lots of it. We have a horse farm and business to sell (great time I picked to sell property!), 11 years of accumulated stuff to get rid of, a boat to find, purchase, and get ready for sea – and finally to move us all from a home to a small boat!
Easy.
The thing is I am so excited about it – I want to skip all the steps and just go right to sea! Why can’t it be this way?
I’ll leave that answer to you…
(But now you know what I have been up to!)
So my point is – what is it that makes you so passionate you can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning to get started? What keeps you up late at night?
Is this what you are doing?
Seth Godin on Excellence
If you are thinking about changing careers – or partners for that matter – this post from Seth Godin is well worth reading…
In the last few days, I’ve heard from top students at Cornell and other universities about my internship.
It must have been posted in some office or on a site, because each of the applications is just a resume. No real cover letter, no attempt at self marketing. Sort of, “here are the facts about me, please put me in the pile.”
This is controversial, but here goes: I think if you’re remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a resume at all.
Not just for my little internship, but in general. Great people shouldn’t have a resume.
Here’s why: A resume is an excuse to reject you. Once you send me your resume, I can say, “oh, they’re missing this or they’re missing that,” and boom, you’re out.
Having a resume begs for you to go into that big machine that looks for relevant keywords, and begs for you to get a job as a cog in a giant machine. Just more fodder for the corporate behemoth. That might be fine for average folks looking for an average job, but is that what you deserve?
If you don’t have a resume, what do you have?
How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects?
Or a sophisticated project they can see or touch?
Or a reputation that precedes you?
Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up?
Some say, “well, that’s fine, but I don’t have those.”
Yeah, that’s my point. If you don’t have those, why do you think you are remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular? It sounds to me like if you don’t have those, you’ve been brainwashed into acting like you’re sort of ordinary.
Great jobs, world class jobs, jobs people kill for… those jobs don’t get filled by people emailing in resumes. Ever.
Why We Do What We Do…
Life is a Yume! (That’s Dream in Japanese!)
We decided a long time ago it was infinitely better for us to be doing what we love doing all the time and working when we can.
Learn how this is accomplished by scrolling through the menu. There is lots of good stuff there from years and years of writing!