"Happiness comes from progress, unhappiness comes from decline” Arthur Brooks
As I approach a significant milestone year in my life, I am experiencing a sense of peace and acceptance around the fact that I have yet to achieve my life's biggest goals and dreams. I think that's the most ironic statement I have ever written! Peace around not yet achieving my Life goals? It's true and it's a liberating feeling considering that just 7 years ago, the reality of not having reached these goals caused me angst and at times a sense of hopelessness and despair. Because of my lifelong interest and commitment to personal growth, I never stayed in these negative states for long but underneath, there remained a restlessness about it. I can’t say I had anything near peace or acceptance at being seemingly nowhere near my biggest dreams.
So what gives?
Have I given up?
Not at all. In fact, I am more confident than ever that I will achieve my goals and dreams, unless of course I experience an early death in the next 10-15 years. What I think happened is that maturity and wisdom have finally set in. This I believe, is a result of my age (soon to be 50) and the constant application of all the tips and tools I have learned and applied along the way which have all helped me keep going, not give up, learn and appreciate the journey
Whereas my goals before were driven mostly from the desire to have more money, there was a neediness there as financial struggles and losing all we had materially from our business failure and ultimate bankruptcy in 2013 contributed to that need. Now, my goals and dreams come from a place that doesn't feel pressured, rushed...needy.
My list of 101 goals/dreams (Stephen Covey exercise) is still there. A few have dropped off. I have added a few more and I might have completed a handful too. However the really BIG ones like building my global social enterprise, traveling around the world with my music band (which I don't even have 😅) and building a thriving non-profit foundation are still there and as mentioned seemingly nowhere near them.
Harvard professor and social scientist Arthur Brook's words (quoted above) hit it on the nail..."happiness comes from progress". I know that since 2014 a year after filing bankruptcy and claiming my intention to try to build another business, I have made progress...at times it has felt slow as molasses or more like minuscule steps instead of baby steps but progress indeed...besides in my opinion, like so many other things, progress is alway relative. Arthur Brooks talks about creative progress in this interview and that resonated deeply with me as that's the peace and acceptance I have around achieving my Life goals/dreams, it's a creative journey, it's something out of the box, it's a process for sure. It's not your ordinary business and really without realizing this until recently, it's a work of art, yes it's entrepreneurial creativity but art nonetheless.
Of course, I wish I was one of those people I so often hear about who started their businesses and were successful at it from the get go but I am not. In the end, I know that all the bad decisions, mistakes and "failures" will help lead to my eventual success and achievement of my BIG goals and dreams. I am realizing now more than ever that what Steve Jobs said about the dots connecting can only be appreciate in hindsight is so very true.
I am posting Tom Bilyeu's interview of Arthur Brooks from his YouTube channel, Impact Theory, there is so much good information in this interview around life, entrepreneurship and relationships. I have placed Arthur Brook's book on my reading list and hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.
As always, sharing tips and tools to help you enjoy the journey of Life.
Mari (Maria) Hernandez
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