Are You Working Hard To Maintain Your Lifestyle But Aren’t Really Happy? There’s A Good Reason Why:

by Marci Shimoff

Do you work hard to provide a safe, comfortable lifestyle for yourself and your family, but you’re too exhausted or stressed to enjoy it much of the time?

Do you wish you could spend more time with your partner or kids, but you barely have enough time to get a full night’s sleep or eat right—let alone relax, laugh, and play?

Maybe you’ve achieved a certain degree of career success in your life, which means that you’ve been able to afford that nice home in a good neighborhood and all the modern conveniences of life.

And maybe you also feel that you’ve really “arrived” in life. You’ve achieved status in your career. You’ve put in the time or invested years in your education and experience.

And now you’re working hard because if you let your foot off the gas even one bit, you’re afraid you’ll be demoted, forgotten, or passed by. You’re worried that you’ll drop the ball, in other words.

However, if you’re really honest with yourself, you have to admit that you’d prefer to enjoy your life and spend time doing more of what matters: being with your family or taking care of your health.

But you feel stuck.

You go through the motions because you feel you must. You’re too busy and too stressed to slow down and smell the roses. Most of the time you’re too tired to really savor what you’ve acquired or achieved.

But you worry that letting go, scaling back, or relaxing will make you feel even worse.

The result?

You’ve become a hostage to your lifestyle.

Do You Worry That Having Less Will Make You Unhappy?

You want to have more quality time with your family or your partner, but you can’t imagine scaling back.

After all, if you were to make less money, you couldn’t afford what you have right now.

You might have to move to a neighborhood that is not as nice or safe, or downsize to a house that is a lot less comfortable. You’d have to give up a lot of the conveniences of life. You’d take even less time off than you do now, because you couldn’t afford vacations anyway.

Maybe what scares you most is having to disappoint those you love.

If you’re nodding your head right now, and feeling a bit sad about the idea that all that comfort and safety comes at a cost—namely, your ability to be happier—then I have to point something important out to you right now:

You have the wrong idea about happiness.

You think happiness is creating a lifestyle that you can feel proud of and good about. You think your family’s happiness comes from the newest gadgets and from conveniences, rather than their relationship with you.

You think you’ll disappoint your loved ones if you scale back in order to enjoy your life more, versus stay the course and make sure nothing changes for the worse.

You might think that. But you’re wrong. How do I know?

Because I’ve made it my life’s mission to study the truth about what really makes people happy, consistently, each and every day.

I’ve spent years interviewing some of the happiest people in the world, scoured through the latest scientific research on positive psychology (happiness), and did my own studies of thousands of people who were on a wide spectrum of happiness.

You know what I learned?

I learned that the happiest people weren’t happy because they lived in a certain house in a certain neighborhood or had a certain career path or lots of money in the bank.

They were happy because they practiced 21 specific habits that unhappy people did not.

These habits had nothing to do with maintaining a certain lifestyle, either.

In fact, research shows that people who win huge sums of money through a lottery aren’t any happier a year later than they were before they started living the millionaire lifestyle.

It’s true!

So why are people who practice certain habits happier than others who don’t practice these habits, but may have more “stuff”?

Because by practicing these habits, happy people were able to raise their happiness level and keep it high, no matter what setbacks, tragedies, or challenges befell them.

This natural happiness level is called a happiness set-point, and it’s the key to being happy for life.

Which means that if these people with a high happiness set-point decided to scale back their work hours or downsize to a smaller house in order to reduce the stress and anxiety in their daily life, it wouldn’t affect their happiness, because they already know how to be happy no matter what.

Which means that they aren’t a hostage of their lifestyle.

They are actually freer than those who believe they can’t do anything about their high-stress, high-anxiety lifestyle.

Happy people enjoy their lives more and feel an intrinsic sense of contentment and ease, whether they have high-profile careers or just have regular jobs.

But the irony is that happy people are statistically more likely to be more successful, healthier, and wealthier than those who are unhappy.

That’s because WHEN HAPPINESS COMES FIRST, good is sure to follow, because happy people make different choices.

And if you want to be happier, you’re also going to have to put happiness first in your life and let go of the idea that you need certain things or achievements first in order to be happy.

How To Welcome More Happiness Into Your Life By Focusing On The Things That ACTUALLY Make You Happier

What if you could put your efforts and time into raising your state of happiness—your happiness set-point—instead of into acquiring or maintaining the things that represent a certain lifestyle?

I can tell you what will happen.

You’ll wake up each day with a profound sense of purpose and fulfillment, because you’ll already have what really matters in life. Your life will be a reflection of your values, whether that’s your family, or helping others, or another purpose that you’ve yet to discover.

You’ll stop feeling so fearful and anxious about losing the “stuff” you’ve acquired because you’ll know you already have everything you need in order to be content. Nothing and no one can take that sense of peace away from you.

You’ll begin to see the world as a friendly place and the Universe (God/Higher Power, whatever you’d like to call it) as conspiring for your higher good. In that sense, you’ll see setbacks and life’s inevitable challenges as opportunities and gifts, not as some kind of cosmic punishment.

You’ll approach life as a victor, not a victim, which means you’ll also stop feeling resentful, angry, or resigned to your fate.

A deep state of happiness can propel you to have better relationships and enjoy what you already have, and bring you more serendipity in life. That means you’ll be constantly amazed at how things just seem to work out.

What can you do to develop this kind of happiness first?

I’ll show you exactly what to do through my 30 Days to a Happier Life video program.

This program reveals the 21 habits of naturally happy people and how to make these habits part of your everyday life.

Each day of the 30-day program, you’ll get one or more practices to try, or exercises to do, or tips to learn that will help you master the habits that will raise your happiness set-point.

When you commit to putting your happiness FIRST, through this fun and easy program, you’ll be so pleasantly surprised at how it will help ease your worries and lessen your stress, even in as little as a few days.

Many people find that raising their happiness set-point gives them more enthusiasm about their current careers and responsibilities.

But if you find that you are unhappy because of your life’s circumstances and conditions, you’ll get the inspiration and courage you need to change your circumstances, because you won’t need to cling so tightly to the myth that your lifestyle is the cause of happiness.

You can start today, with Day 1 of the 30-day program, and learn all about the happiness set-point and the secret that all naturally happy people share here:

You do so much and work so hard for your happiness and perhaps even for the happiness and wellbeing of your family. Isn’t it a relief to know that if you just focus on happiness, everything else will fall right into place anyway?

I know this counterintuitive approach to happiness can work for you like it’s worked for thousands—if not millions—of people who have learned the secret to living a happier life.

With love and happiness,

P.S. Does your work drain you? Do you feel like there’s no purpose or passion behind what you do every day?

In 30 Days to a Happier Life, I’ll help you figure out your passion through a series of 5 questions. Even if you’ve been asking yourself for years, “What shall I do with my life?” and receiving no good answer, you’ll get greater clarity and a sense of purpose when you go through my video program: