How to bear the hardships of success through the effortlessness of happiness

How to bear the hardships of success through the effortlessness of happiness

Recently I’ve been hearing and digesting some podcasts and articles talking about happiness, health, and wealth as the three pillars of life.

It was an amazing episode of MFM but, lately, I started practicing the concept of discerning everything we hear, read, or see and don’t agree just because is from a personality or because it sounds good.

Anyway, They were talking about happiness being a choice, which I completely agreed with, but they also mentioned that happiness should come effortlessly. I thought, at first, that it was a mistake, happiness takes hard work and sacrifices, but then I realized, Success is the one that needs those things. Happiness is really a choice.

That has to be explained.

Nowadays people see these two things inversely, or at least they are deceived to watch it this way. People want to have success very easily and without too much effort, at least that’s how we see it on Tik Tok or ‘gram right?

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

A guy doing some stuff but with a Lambo and a mansion in LA, the girl who is traveling around the world, the influencer that makes tons of money by just making a few dances. That looks pretty effortless to me.

On the contrary, happiness and well-being come with hardships, which means to be ok with yourself physically and mentally, and be satisfied with what you have. “That’s too hard,” people say, “I want to look like him, to be confident like her or to have what they have”.

In the end, we are manipulated to see it the wrong way, but there are some things you can do to change your mindset and be happy and successful, knowing from where they come from.

So, here is how I try to understand and implement these two important themes in my life:

The effortlessness of Happiness:

According to vocabulary.com “Happiness is a sense of well-being, joy, or contentment. When people are successful, or safe, or lucky, they feel happiness. In other words, happiness comes when you feel satisfied and fulfilled. Happiness is a feeling of contentment, that life is just as it should be.”

Successful, satisfied and fulfilled, sounds like an external thing right, when success and luck finally hits you, being with the right person and feel satisfied, accomplish things, and feel fulfilled. Well, you should give a different approach.

It might sound like something you’ve heard before, I definitely have written about this, but I want to emphasize this “happiness should be the first thing we face when we wake up, the first decision we take in the morning and throughout the day, as happiness does not depend on anything more than yourself.

There are two great ways to practice happiness effortlessly:

• Gratitude: Instead of using the words “I have to do this today” repeat to yourself, “I get to do this today”. Be thankful to God or whatever you believe in, have an awareness that not everyone has the opportunities that you have.
• Living each day like is the last: “Memento Mori” is the famous phrase of the stoics that means “Remember, you’ll die”. Not to be afraid and constantly thinking about death rather enjoy life as you only have the present.

Marcus Aurelius also said, “Concentrate on living what can be lived (which means the present)…then you can spend the time you have left in tranquility. And in kindness. And at peace with the spirit within you.”

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

The Hardships of success:

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you’re doing you will be successful.

Now, success, whatever it is to you, is a hard thing to accomplish.

It has its up and downs. Mostly downs to be honest. you’ll feel like you failed, you’ll find yourself alone, you’ll get tired, you’ll be allured by something else, you’ll want to quit many times. But definitely, all of this can be minimized by the first statement.

There is a key to endure all of this, and that’s the reason I explained happiness first.

Happiness is the key to endure the hardships of success.

If you master to choose happiness over anything else, in whatever circumstance, you’ll unlock success in your life. You won’t like everything you do of course, maybe is talking with customers, doing the finance in your business, or just sitting down all day to write an article a day, you might not love that specific task, but you have to love what it comes with it, you have to love what that task is bringing you close to.

Is not going to be easy, but mastering the skill to be happy, effortlessly, in any situation will make it bearable and without you noticing, success will come to you, not without hard work, and will make you feel accomplished…

…and happy? no, happiness will be there with you already, all the way up.

Try it out and let me know in the comments your progress.