The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

5

When does making a million dollars feel like nothing?

Thinking about the trouble we get into when we fall into the Culture of More reminds me of a dinner conversation I had with my friend Josh Tannehill. Josh was asked by his company to move from CEO to an advisory role, which meant he was going from making a couple million a year to half of that. Still a great job. Just a lower-level position than he had before. Less responsibilities. Less than what he wanted.

I asked Josh over dinner how he was feeling about the new job.

“I’ll be honest,” he said. “I’m worried about making ends meet. Donna’s running a design store that loses money but gives her so much joy. We’re halfway through building our retirement home north of San Francisco and the invoices keep getting bigger. Plus there’s our place on Martha’s Vineyard. Our whole family meets there for Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. With the amount of moving we’ve done for work, it’s become our home. But the boats, taxes, and maintenance are too much. With two kids in grad school and our oldest needing financial support, I honestly don’t know what to do.”

I felt sorry for Josh. He was in pain. He was an unfortunate example of what the Culture of More can do.

What’s the solution?

It’s time for the three words.

Remember

The

Lottery

Remember the lottery.

What does that mean?

It means be conscious of your problem-scanning machine’s Amygdala Hijack, be conscious of the more you want, and be conscious to remember how lucky you are to be where you are. Remember you have enough! Remember more isn’t always better.

Remember the lottery.