Are you happy with your life?

Are you happy with your relationships?

Are you happy with your career?

Are you happy with your health?

Are you happy with your aesthetics?

Are you happy?

Now if you answered yes to all of the questions above you are either an incredibly lucky and optimistic person, or you’re a sociopathic liar who fabricates your lifestyle. Either way, I’m not judging you. Or perhaps I am. I mean we all judge each other a little bit don’t we?

And if I were to be honest with you all right now, I would tell you that I am not 100% happy with my own life at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly grateful to have my health and to own and operate a business that I am passionate about growing. But to say that I am happy with my life would be a lie. I am probably more content than anything else. Truth be told, I work too much, I play too little. I focus more on the future rather than living in the moment. I care far too much about being successful, even if it means neglecting potential meaningful relationships. I take care of my physical health at the expense of my mental health. I rarely take breaks. I don’t take vacations. And I only have myself to blame.

When it comes to living a balanced lifestyle, I would give myself an F-. I am an all or nothing type of person. This ofcourse sometimes works to my benefit (especially when it comes to business matters) but is detrimental when it comes to my personal life. I can help people lose weight, build muscle, transform their physiques and improve their health. But when it comes to trying to balance all of this while trying to grow a family or build a relationship, I am probably the LAST person to ask for advice.

What Makes You Happy?

When I ask myself this question, the first answer that comes to mind is “Freedom”. Now the word freedom can mean different things to different people. But to me, freedom means not having to set an alarm to wake up. Freedom means taking a day or two or three off from work, whenever I choose to. Freedom means not having to worry about finances when I’m old and grey. Freedom means not having to worry about the finances of those that are closest to me when they are old and grey as well. However as I become closer to obtaining this “Freedom” that I have worked so hard to achieve in order to make myself happy, I don’t notice any difference in my mood. In fact, if anything, I only notice more stress and more pressure that I continue to put on myself to achieve this so-called feeling of happiness that I thought could be obtained by being free to do as I please.

After coming to the realization that the freedom that I had been chasing for so long would not provide me with the happiness that I so desperately sought, I came to the conclusion that I needed advice. And who better to go to for this advice than from a few of my older clients who were/are currently living a happy and fulfilling life themselves. I mean if anyone knew the answer to being happy, surely they would. They are financially fit. They have the luxury to wake up whenever they like. They go on vacations whenever they see fit. They exercise regularly, while maintaining an active social life. I needed to know their secrets to living this happy and balanced lifestyle. I wanted to learn how to be happy.

Yet the answers that I received, were not even close to what I expected.

The Secret to Living a Happy Life

Every single one of my clients that I recently asked about why and how they are always so happy and positive, explained to me that their lives stopped being so complicated and negative, the day they stopped taking their lives so seriously. Now, at first I thought to myself that it’s always easy to stop taking life seriously when you have no worries or stresses to be concerned about. But then after talking more with these clients, it occurred to me that many of them actually do have stresses and worries in their own lives just like I do. They are just better at managing them than me.

The best advice I received was to stop focusing on the things in which I have no control over. Whether it was trying to steer our company through a pandemic, managing a financial portfolio through a potential recession, or stressing over a conflict that could lead to a third world war, my clients explained to me that these are all surface level concerns. As long as you have your health, your loved ones, a roof over your head, you can always find ways to be happy. I never realized until now how I over complicated something so simple. I really did lose my way for the past few years.

But now my focus is back and I see what’s truly important in life. Relationships that I once I had, but now lost, I’m trying to rebuild. Rest and relaxation that I never took has now become a priority. And creating true happiness and balance has now become a necessity.

“A productive and happy life is not something you find; it is something you make.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove
Forever Fit Performance