Friday, May 18, 2012

Will $19.1 Billion Make You Happy?

Close your eyes and imagine you are Mark Zuckerberg today.  You are feeling your bank account growing and expanding beyond any previous effort on the entire planet Earth! 

Go ahead, think about how that would feel to see the most abundant financial and professional success of anyone known to man!

Feel the pride, the accomplishment, the abundance, the inspiration of who to help and what to do with the wealth of resources available at this price tag. 

Allow your inspiration to wonder, who would you ‘save’? What would you ‘change’? What would you ‘do’? How would you feel, knowing you can make a difference to the tune of 19.1 billion?

In America, we love capitalism, we love money, and we value our happiness!

It is in our culture, we will do anything for happiness, albeit, take a pill a day, buy fancy cars, donate to favorite charities, get a new haircut or new pair of shoes on top of the 100 pairs we already have.

We are always seeking that which will make us ‘feel better and stress less’ so we can find happiness in life and live with peace of mind and heart.

Our culture veins are consistently pumping with messages of need more, want more, spend more, get more, more more more more more...

There is never an end to the feeling of needing more and not having enough.

We are a consistently dissatisfied culture experiencing immense amounts of stress and horrific numbers of depression cases, let alone suicides. 

So as we sit back and watch the wealth explode through the ether of our planet, get excited and inspired with what $19.1 billion can do to help the world be a better place.  Feel the pride and accomplishment it must feel like to see this level of success of your hard work, vision, and leadership.

This multi billion-dollar concept is so far beyond the average person making 40k a year, it is hard to believe, imagine, or conceive what that feels like. 

It must be a feeling of joy and bliss beyond our wildest dreams, right?!

Yet, what if it’s not?

What if its terror, fear, stress, upset, dread of the ‘high’ wearing off.

I have worked with plenty of people who have had the success, the fame, the fortune, the accomplishments, the recognition, yet all of these are unsustainable paths to achieve deep inner contentment and bliss.

So as we are pumped with the messages of

Need more
Want more
I don’t have enough
I can’t make a difference
I can’t be happy until ...


We need to be inspired with our leaders who have been able to do the un-doable.  Accomplish goals beyond our wildest dreams.

We need to be realistic and realize the sustainable happiness path is on the inside.   Money can increase yet stakes increase, responsibilities increase, the game is bigger, the losses are greater, stress can increase dramatically after the ‘high’ of the initial happiness boost.

After the initial boost, happiness derived from external rewards only lasts up to 3 months most of the time.

By the way, research has shown that beyond 70k on average in America, money does not influence happiness.  However, we all know ‘poorer’ countries can be even happier with a lot less than the American dollar of 70k a year. 

It will be an interesting observation to see how this financial windfall affects Mr. Zuckerberg’s levels of stress and his inner peace.

There are ‘successful’ people who are miserable.  They know that another $100,000 or even another 1 million is not going to make them happier.

So, what is there to learn here?

A way to happiness is an inside job.  Any amount of money is not going to create a sustained frequent positive mood, contentment, or eternal states of bliss for you.  It is an inescapable journey that each of us must take for our own levels of peace without stress. 

If you can admit that maybe even $19.1 billion may not equal sustainable inner peace and in fact it can even be experienced as deep inner turmoil and stress, then you could benefit from learning my 5 steps to sustainable happiness.  Visit www.HappinessMakeover.com for more information. 

Click here for downloable lessons to sustainable happiness.


With happiness,

Dr. Aymee Coget

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