There’s a fine line one must walk between being happy and content, and being ambitious and driven.
It’s a difficult balance to find.
To be only driven is to focus almost exclusively on what you do not have, which can distort your judgement, and success is merely the quality of your decisions.
So by being exclusively driven, you likely hurt your chances of supreme success.
Being happy doesn’t require anything external, as such, to be purely happy is to be happy with how things are, which can hurt your drive and remove any potential success you may have had within you.
The ideal is to have both, actually, it’s a necessity to have both.
You can’t win if you’re always focusing on what you do not have.
You can’t be happy if you’re always focusing on what you do not have.
And yet, humans need forward motion to find meaning, purpose, and joy.
So how do you walk this fine line?
1. Practice daily gratitude.
Write down something you’re grateful for. Do it everyday. Be grateful for what you have. It’s silly to focus on what you don’t have.
2. Win the games you choose to play.
You’re likely a driven guy naturally. Being that you’re reading this and on this newsletter, you want improvement.
The key is to see these areas of life where you’re chasing improvement, victory, or success, as games, not as things you need, but as things you will conquer.
War is a game. It requires strategy, clear-thinking, and execution.
But so is success.
If you see your business – for example – as a game you have to figure out how to win, you’re going to have much better judgement, make way better decisions, than you would if you saw it as something you need to be happy.
You need nothing to be happy.
But, you’re here for a reason.
We can find many reasons for why we’re here, but a fundamental one is to reach our potential, to become the best version of ourselves that we can possibly become.
This requires happiness, but also drive, it demands discipline but also freedom and adventure.
Life is insanely short. We’re a drop in the bucket of eternity.
To not aim your highest, to not try and see just how great you can become is a travesty of the highest order.
To spend your life focusing on what you do not have will also be a complete waste of your life.
Be grateful about what you do have.
Document how grateful you actually are.
Fundamentally understand that you need nothing to be happy.
Know that you’re here to become something great. That your potential is your goal, and that you can become your potential RIGHT NOW without having to wait for your surroundings to change.
Work like hell.
Be disciplined so you can enjoy your freedom.
Win every single game you choose to play.
And enjoy the painful, beautiful struggle of the journey that is winning this single life you have.
Be Legendary,
Chad Howse
