Amidst a thunderstorm I reflect on the components of life that bring true joy.

I’d consider myself a very happy person. And I’m the best person to make that assessment. Neither you nor anyone else can make an assessment of how I’m feeling from the same perspective that I can. The exact same thing can be said for you. Are you happy? If not, have you considered trying life differently?

The book you read.

This year has been my best by far for hitting reading goals. I could impress upon you the brilliance of my reading abilities (actually, rather average), but what I’ve done to achieve them, anyone can. The book I just finished last night, Atomic Habits by James Clear, put forward four distinct “Laws” as James put it to create effective habits (and dwindle bad ones). While I'll let you appreciate the details of these laws yourself, I'll note that both reading and a better understanding of habits has taken me down new paths of belief of what I am really capable of and how taking the time to fill your life with truly meaningful activities that stretch your mind and body can improve your overall level of happiness.

My journey didn’t start with James Clear’s book. It happened on a day not dissimilar to a day like today in December last year when I decided quite simply, that I was going to actively drive my life.

Manufacturing your own life (not just buying what others are selling).

While I have dipped my toes in the personal development waters over the years, it’s becoming a truer fact that no single text will give you everything you need and nobody knows how to make you happy except you. This is frightening to most people. And I think to someone like Peter Buffet (son of Warren – a very wealthy American investor), he too, may have at least at some point, felt an enormous pressure to go into investing like his father. Luckily for Peter, he was raised by two very open and loving parents who wanted him to pursue his own life, whatever that looked like. Over the years, I have felt at times like I wished my father forced me into a career and removed the choice. It's hard knowing exactly what you're supposed to do. The fact is, even if my dad had encouraged me to begin studies as a surveyor, the econosphere has changed so much that I doubt that without retraining in various fields (possibly engineering or some other technical discipline), I may have found myself less employable and possibly even less happy.

I’d have to make my own choices sooner or later anyway. So why not now?

Making a change.

As an adult, it can be a tough decision to change one’s career or even see their own life in a different light. After we’ve been through tertiary education, bounding along through various changes, eventually, we’re told, “Ok, now that’s enough swapping about. Time to choose a career.” What time does that happen? At the end of your first year of university? Second year? What if you didn’t start university until you were twenty three? Maybe you’ve never been before.

No matter what you’re doing now, you can always change your path. Yes, there are obligations we must still meet. But think to yourself for a moment, if a fire were to come along and take everything away, including the business you worked for, what would you do? In effect, you’d be forced by the “hand of God” for want of a better phrase to make a choice. If you’re not happy now, it’s your prerogative to make your own choice whenever you feel like it. The sooner you start, and subsequently keep making positive changes to your life (seeking positive role models, thinking of others first and so on) the sooner you'll be succeeding right now in living a successfully happy life.

A very small part of life that revolves around money is needlessly inflated. While I believe everyone deserves a life of bliss and abundance and don’t view money as either a saviour nor an evil, the modern era filled with artificial commercialism has warped our consciousness and drive to seek more and more of the stuff to spend on instant gratification that leaves you empty and wanting more like a gambling or drug addiction. Using money for frivolities like frequent new cars, excessive jewellery and infinite tech gadgets has the same effect on our brains as sugar. Just thinking of a delicious chocolate Vego bar (creamy with an abundance of hazelnuts) has me salivating! I believe consumer addiction is a very real phenomena and should be treated much the same way as other forms of addiction. The effects of consumer addiction force people to work meaningless jobs they don’t like to pay for luxuries that don’t bring lasting happiness and foster the simultaneous malignancies of both greed and envy at the expense of friendships and family relations.

Wealth can be powerful, so be very careful what you wish/work for and to be quite frank, of the many people who have more money than I, I've seen few that are as happy as I am or are using it to strengthen the communities and the people closest to them. Ask yourself this; Do I currently live within my means now? Do I give freely to those who need it? Am I happy with what I have now? If not, which dollar will change it? One extra? The one after that? Nine hundred and ninety nine thousand and seventy two?

Or will it be the seventy third extra dollar that brings you to the realisation that donating fifty bucks to a local charity is a worthwhile thing to do?

A possibility for de-cluttering.

Consider for a moment the popular show, Tidying Up hosted by the Japanese organising consultant, Marie Kondo. The premise of the show is that she helps people to de-clutter their lives from the sock drawer to closets full of unworn Nike high tops in order to bring joy to their lives. While her books are now on my reading list, I will admit that I haven’t read her philosophy yet that I am certain isn’t covered anywhere near appropriately within the bookends of each of the show’s episodes. But I’m pretty sure she’d agree with me in saying that reformulating the structure and contents of one’s own life is as important (if not more so) than doing the same for one’s home.

At a glance.

Do you enjoy working as much as you do? Do you enjoy the work you perform and who you associate with? Would you like more ‘free time’ to pursue things that hold greater value to you than material possessions?

If you said yes to any of those things, it’s time to look more closely at what you can change (I’m going to give the secret away: You can change everything). While the first thing you’re likely to think is, "What am I going to have to sacrifice?”, what you should really be saying is, “What can I gain from these changes?”

Is restructuring your life possible?

Changing your job may give you the freedom to move to a less costly apartment with few rooms to vacuum and dust and have a garage for just one car. Now tell me, who enjoys having to forego weekends away from their children and spouse to pay for a car they don’t have time to use? Would you like to spend more time exercising or have the time to research healthier ways to live instead of having a boss breathing down your neck on a Friday night?

I am not condemning passionate people that have a hectic work life. Some people are wired that way (after their own honest examination) and can function perfectly normally, at least for a time. I was actually frustrated to find that Tom Bilyeu hasn’t written his own book yet (but has an excellent podcast titled Impact Theory) and has also been on the Rich Roll Podcast. Tom is an extremely wealthy individual who would argue that none of his money changed him from who he was before. I believe that Tom’s work as an entrepreneur was at the intersection of an occupation that could potentially generate great wealth (or send him bankrupt) while providing a sense of fulfilment. Tom has said that the fourteen years of work that led him to his financial wealth were incredibly hard and was by no means the easy road to success.

Maybe you want to change your current boring, dead end job to take a risk as an entrepreneur if you enjoy stress, but have in the forefront of your mind that helping others is a primary goal. These people thrive because while most of the time the financial reward doesn’t manifest, the driver to help people in a genuine sense is what keeps the flame alive. The little lesson is that we should be enjoying the moments of difficulty as well as the moments filled with love. The pay off isn't the end unless you decide to take your own life once you've got there. So now what? Having all the resources now to effectively put your feet up all day may just signal the beginning of a new inner turmoil,

"What is the new meaning of my life?"

For those who are passionate about pencilling and story-telling, a change in jobs might open up time for you to pursue your other interests more seriously. One of my favourite hard-working creative minds is that of Rich Tomasso, the legend behind Dry County, a five part comic series published by Image of which I have written a review here. He’s doing the one thing we should all be striving for – doing work for others. Even if Rich wasn’t paid by Image, he’d still be working as a comic creator. I’m so glad I found his work and I sing his praises at every opportunity. If you happen to read this Rich, please reach out, as I'd love to delve into your mind to find out more about what keeps you producing such high quality work.

Giving up the glitz? From consumer to creator.

As the title suggested, maybe we shouldn't focus so much on material wealth and all the trappings that it seems to draw in. There’s an enormous war being waged between the haves and the have-nots – excess and poverty and everyone in between. It seems like there is no position within the spectrum that seems to alleviate the desire for more. What makes the discussion difficult to have is that if you’re a successful business owner, you’re labelled a greedy capitalist (Bill Gates couldn’t be further from this position, I have some to learn) but if you're happy living on less you’re termed a hippy or a minimalist (which I don't mean to use as derogatory terms). Even those savvy podcasters, Joshua and Ryan from The Minimalists would agree that money isn’t the issue, nor are the pathways that happen to lead there. (I say happen because no pathway is a guaranteed pathway to riches!)

The mentality needs to shift from focusing one oneself to using your resources (love, time, skills, knowledge, money) to create products, services and environments that give back to people so that they, too, can be functional givers to society.

Maybe the first thing we should give (away) is a bit of the glitz.

To Your Happiness,

Nick.

All content is original and belongs to @nickmorphew. [6 March 2019]

Disclosure: This article was not a paid promotion and was not self-upvoted. Nor were there any affiliate links.

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I’m currently working on my debut fantasy novel based on my early work, Adventures in Elowyn Glade. Please contact me if you would be interested in supporting the project to secure a high quality publication.

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You didn’t think you’d leave here without me shamelessly plugging my other work, right?

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