Imagine spending years chasing a goal, believing it will finally make you happy. Then you reach it… and the feeling doesn’t last. Maybe you feel accomplished for a while, but then the excitement fades. You start looking for the next thing. A bigger goal, a higher level, something else to prove to yourself and others. The cycle continues.
This is why some of the most successful people seem restless. They keep pushing for more, not because they need more, but because stopping would mean facing the uncomfortable truth: success didn’t fix everything. They’re still searching for something deeper, but they don’t know what. They may appear happier, yes, but those who are actually happy found it before the success. They were content before and now this success simply adds to that happiness, which is why they appear happy to you. What you don’t realize is that those who are successful and genuinely happy did all the work on their inner selves first. They built the foundation of their happiness long before any external achievement came their way.
If you think happiness is waiting for you on the other side of success, ask yourself: What if it’s not? What then? Start living your life as if you’ve realized there’s no future happiness waiting for you. Focus on finding happiness now. Do the things, or work on the things, that are holding you back from being happy in this moment.