But Are You Happy?

Right now? No.

Of all the different theories of to what the meaning of life is, as I get older the one that resonates most closely with me is that the ultimate goal is simply to be happy.

And if you can spend your time doing something that makes you happy whilst simultaneously helping others, to me that seems like the ultimate definition of a successful life.

But over the last few weeks, I’ve come to the realisation that actually right now I’m not particularly happy, and actually I'm not trying to be...

… and that’s completely ok.

Before diving in to the main part of this blog I need to stop and as always acknowledge that my life is amazing and that everyday I feel incredibly privileged and grateful to have somehow been handed the situation in life I have.

And more than anything, because I’ve been so fortunate to have been dealt the hand I have, I feel it’s my moral responsibility to show my gratitude by doing something meaningful and worthwhile with my life, something I hope will leave this world just a little bit better than when I arrived. 

Also if you could help me figure out what that is, that’d be great.

So how does this help you with your content production? Well…

My intuition says to achieve anything in life you need a solid foundation to work from; your starting point should be a position of influence.

And it breaks my heart to see when people think this position of influence will come from reaching a certain amount of followers on social media and when that magic number climbs to 10,000 somehow all your hopes and dreams will come true.

My intuition says that chasing numbers will never truly make you happy, whether that be followers or financial, because one you reach a goal of a certain figure, there’s always a bigger number right behind it.

Amazon Founder, Jeff Besoz has now supposedly achieved the highest number in his bank account of any human alive and in a super interesting piece of his content this week, Gary Vaynerchuk (yes I’m a huge fan of his if it wasn’t obvious already) said something that really stuck with me…

“Imagine if Jeff Besoz was making a daily vlog in his first two years running Amazon. How amazing would it be right now to go back and watch the richest man in the world packing books in to boxes, shipping orders and building his business from nothing. How many billions of people would want to see that? ”.

(I’ve paraphrased Gary’s words while keeping the sentiment of his message).

Furthermore, Gary’s been talking recently a lot about making content for the purpose of being viewed for the future, for example in  24 months time and to me this all stems back to the thought of being your most authentic self in everything that you do. Because right now who wouldn’t want to see what Jeff Besoz was doing when he first started his company?

The amount of content from so called self made-millionaire internet business ‘experts’ seems to be at an all time high of late. And to be honest I couldn’t care less about this pseudo-reality they seem to be peddling in order to line their own pockets and exploit vulnerable people who haven’t yet seen through their strategy.

And as Gary said, a fly on the wall vlog series watching Jeff Besoz go about his day to day work building Amazon back at the start, not preaching, not asking people to pay him for coaching, just showing what he was up to for us to watch and learn, would get millions (if not billions) of views.

So coming back to your content production and happiness, this week I’ve been thinking a lot about this 24 months ahead mindset. 

Right now you’ve probably got a goal in mind you want to achieve and perhaps like me sometimes it gets you down when every time we log on to social media, seeing a multitude of people who have apparently ‘so easily’ achieved what we want to do.

But think 24 months ahead, if you put in two years of solid and focused work, imagine where you would be in life. If you’re unhappy with your position of influence or your business or personal brand, my intuition says just focus on documenting your honest and authentic truth as you work towards that goal.

Sure it might only get a couple of views now, but imagine in 24 months time when you’ve achieved something great, then everyone is going to want to see how you did it

And that’s when all the eyeballs will be on you.

So remember to ask yourself, are you happy? 

And right now if you’re not that’s ok. 

I’ve come to the realisation that maybe for a little while now, that right now maybe I’m not trying to be happy, just grateful.

But you can bet that I’m going to do all I can to be the happiest person in 24 months time.

I hope this brought you some value and help in all you’re doing.

And I wish you every success.

Jack

(Also if you’re really not happy and want someone to talk to, I’m always here to listen…. jack@southpawsport.com)

This story was originally posted on www.jacktompkins.co