The Promise I Made to be Happy in Life by 30
We’ve got a year and a half left…clock’s ticking.
Come sit with me for a moment.
Close your eyes and imagine the start of a perfect day. Maybe you wake up feeling well-rested. You didn’t have to set an alarm because you didn’t have anywhere to be. Maybe you do a little morning yoga, make some coffee and a bagel sandwich (extra hot sauce for me).
You sit down at your kitchen table and actually enjoy the food in front of you. No scarfing it down like a wild animal who doesn’t know when its next meal will be. You savor the flavors in that moment. This is your life, and you deserve to relish in every second of it.
Now, the reality is that we don’t always get that perfect start to our day. And as someone who has, until very recently, been punching the clock in corporate America, I can’t remember the last time I experienced a morning like that.
I’m not saying it’s impossible. In fact, I know plenty of people who are able to balance their perfect morning routines with a crazy day in the office. At least they appear like they are able to. They’re either genuinely happy, or able to pretend like they are. In which case, kudos to them for being better actors than I ever will be.
My own search for happiness has been a long time coming.
Most of my twenties has been comprised of a hunt from one job to the next. I’ve moved from Omaha to Chicago to LA, and have worked in retail, the entertainment industry, and most recently: the dreaded corporate. Nothing has ever satisfied me the way I wanted it to or was hoping it could.
Why couldn’t I just be happy?
I’m starting to realize that most of my twenties has been a chaotic search for balance between being financially stable and doing something I love. And let’s face it, it can be freakin’ hard to nail that kind of job and lifestyle.
So I boiled down what I wanted out of a career. Money, fame, success. Those things would be nice to have. But what I came up with was simple: happiness. I value happiness above all else.
And if I want to get to happiness by thirty, I’ve got to pull myself out of my comfort zone and make changes.
Because happiness comes from change. From the courage to recognize that the job and life you are living today does not fulfill you, and to do something about it. Maybe it brings you money. But does it bring you the well-rested sleep? The early morning yoga session, the coffee, the homemade bagel sandwich?
If your job does not allow you to be happy, then do what you have to do. Orchestrate a plan to happiness. Put your heart and soul into finding what it is that sings to you, and do not settle.
This is my first step. What will be yours?
