How to be happy as a high-achiever

Are you feeling happy with where you’re at? I know I wasn’t for a long time. I always believed that having high achiever goals would mean the sacrifice of being happy in the moment.

With big goals like: making millions of dollars, traveling all over the world, being in the best shape ever 24/7…

I constantly felt there was a lack because I didn’t have any of those things yet. I felt unhappy with who I was and what I was doing in life.

The thing is that I was constantly measuring myself against this ideal version of me. Even when I achieved wins, I was already looking for the things I didn’t achieve or needed to do next.

All of this is a vicious cycle also known as: ‘Gap thinking’. It’s the concept of one of the best books I’ve read last months: The gap and the gain.

When you’re in the gap you measure forwards to this ideal and perfect version of yourself. Next to gap thinking there’s the alternative where you measure backward looking from where you started.

High-performance and happiness can go hand in hand. You don’t need to create a lack for yourself to be motivated to become better.

To quote the book

‘Goals expand happiness. I don’t think we set and achieve goals in an effort to become happy. We do it because we are happy and want to expand our happiness’.

As an action step look at how you’ve become better already. What you learned and compare yourself to the person you were 3 years ago.

Keep improving 👊

Ivan