4 Lessons On Happiness For Entrepreneurs [How To Be Happy]

4 Lessons On Happiness For Entrepreneurs

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about?the 'endless pursuit of happiness' and how you can be happy now.

One of the biggest things I see among entrepreneurs and me is the fact that happiness means reaching our goals.

"When I'm making $X, I'll be happy."

"When I have Y or Z, I'll be happy."

There is a strong association with reaching our?goals?and happiness.

Oftentimes, this is the direct reason why a lot of people spend so long staying unhappy.

In the previous article on happiness, I mentioned?5 ways anyone can be happy right now?without needing to reach this false sense of fulfillment we've all set for ourselves.

However, I believe that there are many things left to talk about which I have not yet mentioned, things that are important to this argument.

For a long time, happiness has been something I've restrained myself from having due to the fact that I thought I 'didn't deserve it.'

I've played the game of entrepreneurship for a while now, getting closer to two years, and?failure after failure, I dig myself a deeper hole.

When I decided to?take a break?a week ago, I had time to really think about what I was doing with my life.

It gave me time to sit down and really understand the damage I was doing to myself and helped me realise a few more things I had not yet fully comprehended beforehand.

Here are 4 (more) lessons on happiness for entrepreneurs.

Find your passion

To this day, I believe that there is not much I am truly passionate about.

There are a few things I like to do more than other things, but they're not passions.

However, I've come to realise that everyone has a passion hidden within them.

Some find that passion within the first few years of their lives,

Others discover that in their teens,

Then there are also those who find their passions in their adult lives.

No matter who you are, there is always a passion - something that makes you happy when you do it, no matter the outcome.

We spend a long part of our lives?pursuing things that we don't truly like.

We spend over a decade in education just to finally?get a job?we then realise we don't truly enjoy.

Entrepreneurs, you and I, spend years and years failing, learning, and?building businesses?which most of the time, don't bring the level of satisfaction that one anticipated.

Finding your passion is vital to your happiness - for this article's sake, I'm going to talk about basketball.

Basketball has many benefits to my personal life -?health, wellbeing, and happiness.

Every time I play basketball, I'm enjoying myself with friends and forgetting all about my daily troubles and frustrations.

Everyone has something that makes them happy.

That could be drawing.

That could be cooking, heck that makes me happy too!

That could be baking.

Find something you're truly passionate about doing and do it.

Now I'm not going to act like you should follow your passion, because not everyone is lucky enough to be able to monetize their passion.

However, even taking the time to do what you like a few times a week can make a massive difference in your happiness.

When you're locked inside day after day, it can be very difficult to be happy - you start to forget what that feels like.

It's alright to be happy, it's alright to do something you like doing - even if you're not 'successful' right now.

Don't lose the kid

Everyone still has the kid left in them.

The?part of us that likes to have fun, cause a little mischief and laugh at the end.

The part of us that had no worries or troubles, but was just a free soul roaming the earth.

Once again, lots of people lose the kid in them when they go into university, when they?get a job, or when they?pursue a venture.

We're often told that success comes at the cost of doing whatever it takes to succeed.

We listen to 'gurus' about how we should live our lives only to realise that we're not happy in the slightest.

It becomes too late to turn back, the only way out is to see this through.

So we grind and grind, looking for any signs of success - day by day it gets harder and tougher.

Our patience wears thin, and we start to eat ourselves from the inside out.

The longer we go with no sign of success, the louder the voices get, telling us that:

'we're not enough,'

'we're useless, we'll never be successful'

'we should quit whilst we're ahead.'

Previously, my escape from the world was gaming with my friends on Playstation.

For the past year or so, I have not used my Playstation at all for gaming.

It's been sitting on my table in my bedroom collecting dust until I finally decided to?take a break from business.

My first instinct was to get on Playstation and catch up with my friends, I finally rediscovered the kid in me.

I had fun, I laughed, I enjoyed myself, and best of all, I did not rage or get angry at the game!

Those few days I spent away from business were great!

I slept in, I gamed, I ate, all without the worry of the world on my shoulders.

It's alright to enjoy yourself once in a while.

Now, when I finish my work for the day, instead of forcing myself to look for something to do only to?overthink?everything, I go upstairs to talk to friends, to have fun.

Nowhere in the business 101 guide does it say 'don't have fun, just work.'

The reason entrepreneurs are so unhappy is that all we really know is to grind it out and keep working.

That is no way to live life, no way for anyone to live?day after day.

Find the kid in you, and let them out.

Emotional detachment

The worst thing an entrepreneur can do is get stuck in their own head.

Letting your mind roam free is a?big mistake lots of entrepreneurs make.

Detaching yourself from your negative emotions is the best way to avoid sadness or anxiety.

A lot of entrepreneurs, successful ones especially, talk highly about meditation.

Although I have not practised meditation myself, I believe that it's one of the best ways to clear your mind.

I've spoken a lot about different ways of doing this - when I ran my?marketing agency, I reached the lowest point in my life where it felt like I had no choice but to?give up.

Dark thoughts and feelings flooded my mind and I had to find a way to detach myself from those negative emotions.

To do so, I discovered that writing is a great source of therapy for me.

I started to write my thoughts and feelings in a Word Document which eventually turned into a?full 30,000-word book?which I am yet to launch.

Every time I wrote about how I felt, I quickly started to feel better about myself.

Combining this with daily walks, showers, or podcasts, it becomes very easy to take your mind off of your inner thoughts and focus them on something else.

Find something small that you could do quickly to avoid getting trapped in your own mind.

Every time you start feeling like you're lost or you want to give up,?try writing about how you feel.

Then try to figure out the reason why you might feel like that.

Every day in the morning, I write a single article on my blog,?mohamadalasadi.com.

This helps me get focused for the day and is also a great hobby that I've built over the?past 100+ days?which will eventually?compound?into something great.

I started it with the sole reason of helping other entrepreneurs who also feel stuck or need some sort of guidance or direction.

Although I'd love for it to turn into it's own lucrative income stream, I have not made this my goal.

It feels amazing when I get DMs or comments telling me how my words have changed people's lives, how they have influenced people's?choices, and given them a sense of direction.?

In a way, I'm writing this article for myself today - I'm starting to get that feeling a lot of entrepreneurs get when they feel like nothing is going as expected.

As soon as I start to write, I feel a small sense of relief.

Try it out, and see how much of a difference it really makes.

You have time

This is difficult to say because I used to have?a goal?of reaching?financial freedom?by the time I was 18 years old.

The closer I got to that 18th birthday, the more I realized how far my goal was and the sadder and sadder I got.

A massive milestone came crashing back down to earth when I hit the age of 18 and was nowhere near where I wanted to be in life.

It was heart-breaking.

It felt like I had no time left to do anything I wanted to do in life.

It felt everything was about to get 10X harder.

I always thought that we had a lack of time - and to a certain degree, we do.

Time is of the essence and that is why it's important to live it to its fullest potential.

Go and get what it is you want from life, but at the same time, remember there is always time to put yourself first.

There is always time to?take care of your mind, there is always time to be happy and enjoy life.

You don't have to work 24/7 to reach your goals.

You just need to put in the work when necessary - this might mean 8 hours a day for 5 days a week.

For others, that might mean 12 hour days every single day.

Even with that timetable, there is time to enjoy yourself once in a while.

You have time to do everything you want to do.

Don't act your life from a point of desperation.

Act from the heights of abundance and power.?

You have enough time to do everything you want to do.

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Till next time.

Mohamad