Getting Happy: It’s Easier Than You Think!

On to today’s episode! Have you ever pursued a really big goal, reached it, and then felt a huge emotional letdown? You thought you would be happier and more excited. But you weren’t. If you’re nodding your head and saying “Yes,” April can relate to your struggle. At another time in her life, she would achieve a big goal and then not understand why she felt such a letdown afterward. So what did she do? What does she recommend you do? Find out in this episode of the Winning Mindset Mastery Podcast. Here’s a bonus: she tells you how to get your hands on a free tool that can help you enjoy life more and be happier—not just someday or once you reach your goal, but now!

—

Listen to the podcast here

 

Getting Happy: It’s Easier Than You Think!

Thank you for joining me. There’s an old Haitian proverb that says, “Beyond mountains, there are mountains.” The person who first came up with that meant, “Once you solve this problem, there’s going to be another problem.” They weren’t huge on having a winning mindset, but there’s another way to look at that.

If you are a goal-oriented person, you have had this experience where you’re working towards a goal, whether it’s something you want to achieve in your personal life, your health, your career, or even something big that you’re saving up money to buy, and you have this incredible anticipation, this incredible motivation, and then you get there. There is just not what you expected. It almost feels like a letdown.

 

There’s a scientific and chemical reason for this. One of the happiness chemicals, dopamine is hardwired biologically to drive you towards doing things to secure a better future. Whether in years gone by, that was food, money, resources, or whatever, it is still the same thing that drives you towards goals now. It’s why folks can be so motivated to get to a place where they will have arrived. They imagine that they’re going to feel so happy and excited, but they’re more disappointed when they get there because they haven’t cultivated some of those other happiness chemicals like serotonin and oxytocin. Those are the contentment, happiness-type chemicals. You can throw endorphins in there, too.

 

If you’re a very type A person and I am, then you are a little more high dopamine. You are more motivated. That is what gets your juices flowing and gets the reward center of your brain activated. However, if you look at a type B person, the people that are more content than you are, a little more go with the flow. Candidly, sometimes, they seem happier. They may not move as much as you do or go towards goals as quickly, but they seem overall a little more even-keeled maybe, or a little happier. Those folks have a higher percentage of serotonin and oxytocin and even some of the endorphins that allow them to enjoy the now. Those are more now-based hormones and chemicals that we have.

If you’re able to realize that you are always going to have another goal once you have this goal, no matter how much you achieve or how big of a thing you accomplish, there’s always going to be that next thing that you want. We are wired that way. We will never get to a point and say, “I’m good. I’m done. I want to enjoy this.” If you know that, you can give yourself permission to enjoy more of the process of getting there.

 

There are so many benefits to that. One of the benefits is when you focus on enjoying that process, you are going to feel more of the enjoyment that you think you’re going to get at the end that is never there. Again, dopamine is a future-based chemical. You don’t get a big hit of it once you get there. It’s to get you there. You’ll enjoy that process more. Just like any day you’ve had at work that was awesome and the time flew by, you’re also going to feel like you got to that goal more quickly, which is amazing.

The third thing is you don’t feel that big disappointment when some big goal that you get to, some big purchase, or some accomplishment doesn’t feel like you thought it would. It helps you balance out being motivated, but having that happy feeling all through it. How do you do that? Simple. It’s just focusing on what you appreciate and what you’re grateful for in that process.

Little gains, the ability to do the things to get towards what you want to get to, enjoying the small learnings, enjoying the small achievements, and breaking it down into the day-to-day. I am sharing this with you as someone who spent most of my life not being able to do this and not understanding why I was so disappointed after achieving big goals because I felt this lackluster let down what-am-I going-to-be excited-about-now feeling.

Making the conscious choice to practice that seventeen seconds of appreciation that I talk about in the morning. You can get more information on the website, WinningMindsetMasteryPodcast.com. It’s in the free gift, showing you how to do that every day, focusing on three wins every single day. Those are ways that you start to beef up the here-and-now appreciation chemicals in your mind. That does so much to make you enjoy your life more right now. Also, it allows you to pull forward the happiness that you think you’re going to have from accomplishing big goals.

Enjoying your life more right now allows you to pull forward the happiness that you think you're going to have from accomplishing big goals. Share on X

I want you to try this. If you, like me, are someone who’s super driven to pursue all sorts of goals, I want you to start finding the little bits of happiness and appreciation in the process of it. What little things can you be excited about during the process? It will help you stick to your plan more easily. It will allow you to enjoy it all along the way. The entire experience will feel more pleasurable all through the process, which allows you to get that enjoyment that you had been saving until the end earlier in and also keeps you from feeling that let down at the end. Give it a try. Let me know how it works for you. Here’s to your success.