Happy or Joy?

Through my Well-Being course I’ve been learning a little about the science of happiness. It’s been really cool to explore. What I did not realize is that there is a difference between joy and being happy. They are not the same. I looked for some content that frames this up really well, and here’s one I found on YouTube that was short, and really brilliant from Mathew McConaughy and the Absolute Motivation channel. (9 mins).

Link: https://youtu.be/p0p1fjLPjYQ

We spend a lot of time trying to be make happy, happen. We do this by thinking when we have the money we want, we’ll finally be happy. When we get the job we wanted, we’ll be happy. When we get enough stuff, we’ll be happy. The reality and I’m still working on it at 46, it doesn’t work that way. It might for a few minutes, days, and sometimes a year. But it is not sustainable. We need to feed joy first.

Happiness as Matt shares is an if, then response that cannot be sustained because we raise it every time we reach a level of happiness. It’s results driven. Happiness is a means to an end, result driven. Joy is not a choice or response to a result. It’s a constant. It’s doing what you are fashioned to do. When we find joy in what we go after first, we will enjoy life more because we will be in the space we’re designed to be in.

Ways to improve or discover our joy Matt highlights:

• Gratitude in what we do have
• Be the builder and blueprint maker of your own life
• Find a purpose. Matt has 5 things that foster joy in his life. If work/life doesn’t fit in those 5 things, they are removed.
• Prioritize what gives your character a lift, do not jeopardizes it
• Determine what’s important in your life, and create maintenance practices around them to protect them
• Define success for yourself and then tend to it daily

I hope you find your joy and how it fits into your life. I for one can share that eliminating in my mind who I am not, was a great place to start with who I wanted to be. This is where I began to live out my joy. This is where I began to be fed with the life I’ve been entrusted to live out on this ball of dust.

I also know my time is finite here on this planet, and I am done wasting it on what I am not!

✌ Shawn