Happiness and success – it seems like we’re all chasing this in some form or another.

We think that when we get that new house or that job promotion or those really hot shoes that we’ll be happy. And chances are that’s what happens – at least in the short-term. The moment we get the new shiny object we’ve been chasing, we get that adrenaline rush and we feel happy.

But all too often, those elated feelings of happiness are fleeting. Once we’ve got the new job or the new house, we find that we’re ultimately no happier than before and we default back to looking for other things to satisfy the need to be happy.

The more we do this, the less likely we are to find true happiness – an enduring feeling of joy and contentment.

That’s because we’ve usually got the equation backwards.

We think success = happiness, but actually it’s the other way around: happiness = success.

There’s a lot of research to back this up and Shawn Achor’s great book, The Happiness Advantage, discusses this topic in great detail. The key concept is that until we actually feel happy within ourselves, we won’t experience long-term contentment or truly realize the dreams and goals we’re pursuing.

But how can we become happy – truly happy – and then realize the success we want? It’s simple:

  1. Put Yourself in the Emotion. Visualize the success you want to have and imagine that you’ve already achieved it. How do you feel? What are the emotions that come up for you? Do you feel accomplished, joyful, optimistic, empowered? Write down those emotions so you focus on them and practice feeling them every day. As you sit in those feelings, you’re raising your energy vibration, which makes you feel happier, which in turn, helps you attract the success you’re looking for. See how that works? Feel better first, then create what you want.
  1. Focus on What You Want. To really feel happy and put yourself in a position for realizing your success, you need to focus on what you already have – not on what you don’t have. So often we think we’re putting our focus on building our success, but in actual fact we’re spending more time feeling frustrated that we haven’t yet achieved it. When we do that we’re emphasizing the lack of it and that’s what we get more of. Instead, if we truly focus on what we want, we start to attract that into our lives. A great way to do this is to practice gratitude for everything you have in life – whether it’s your relationships, work, money, family, or whatever. You can choose anything you like as long as you’re consistently putting yourself in a position of gratitude and feeling thankful for what you have.
  1. Celebrate Your Successes. Again, what we focus on grows. So if you’re busy beating yourself up that you didn’t get more done this week or you’re falling short of your goal, what’s going to happen? You’re just going to stay in that low-vibe place, attracting more of the same disappointments. BUT, you can flip this around. When you get to the end of each day, consider what went well, what wins did you have? These may be big (landing a new job) or small (made it to the gym) – it doesn’t matter. The point is to take inventory of your success so that you feel good about what you’ve accomplished and you position yourself to experience even more.

The bottom line is this – someone or something is not going to bring you the happiness you crave. You have to cultivate your own happiness – and it’s not until you do this that you’ll attract the success you want in your life.

How do you create your own happiness and what success has it brought to your life? Please let me know by sharing your comments below or on my Facebook page.

Alex 🙂 xo

Want a FREE Assessment Call where you tell me what you feel is holding you back from creating what you want and I share what I think you need to do to start making effective changes? Just click here to book your call.

Check out what others are saying about working with me.

Transform Your Life from Burning Out to Burning Bright!