Transcription
For most of my life, I've always thought that if I improved myself and achieved my goals, I would then reach a point in my life where I could finally be truly happy. You know, truly, truly happy—where you've reached a point in your life where you can just sort of relax and be content with the life that you're living.
Especially during the phases where I wasn't doing so well in life, I would always tell myself, "Well, this makes perfect sense because I'm fat and I'm broke. I don't have a job; I do nothing but play video games all day and live in my parents' basement. I'm too afraid to talk to girls." So, that was the reason why I felt unhappy. I thought if I fixed these problems—if I was no longer fat, no longer broke, and had a girlfriend—then I would actually get to be happy, right?
There came a time in my life when I initially thought I was right about this. I started to radically flip my life around. I began to improve myself; I started to lose some weight, I mustered the courage to talk to girls, and I got a job. I was no longer broke, and I felt on top of the world. I felt probably like the best I had ever felt in life. I felt confident and happy. I woke up with a smile on my face; everything just felt good.
I remember telling myself, "Damn, if this is what I'm feeling right now, then imagine how happy I will be once I've actually achieved my goals." Because, at that point, I still didn't have a girlfriend. I had brought up the courage to talk to girls, and I was making progress and developing my social skills, but I still didn't have a girlfriend. Yes, I was making progress losing weight, but I was still a little bit fat and not at my ideal body yet. I wasn't done with my goals, yet I was feeling incredibly good about it.
So, I would tell myself, "If this is what I'm feeling right now, then imagine how incredible I'm going to feel when I've actually achieved all of those things." But then, there came a point in my life where I reached this end point—this temporary end that I had set for myself. I sat there in the comfort of my own home, on the couch, with the girlfriend and the body that I wanted to have. I had a job; I mean, I wasn't rich, sure, but at least I had a job and wasn't broke anymore. I wasn't the loser who just played World of Warcraft all day anymore.
Then, I realized that I wasn't feeling that good at all. In fact, there came a point where I didn't really have any goals to work towards, and I actually felt kind of bad again. I wasn't feeling as bad as I had during my lowest lows, sure, but I wasn't feeling good. I was actually feeling kind of bad despite having achieved so many of the goals I wanted to achieve. I felt a lot worse than I did during that phase when I was improving myself, shedding off the weight, and going out to talk to girls.
It was the inner gamer inside of me that suddenly realized what was going on. Without really knowing it, I had already experienced this before in the video games I played. I played a lot of games like World of Warcraft, where you usually have things that you are working towards. I noticed several times throughout my gaming career that I would always work towards something. For example, you're trying to get the best gear for your character, and you're having a lot of fun trying to get that gear. You always tell yourself, "Oh man, once I have all the best gear, it's going to be so amazing!"
But that is when the fun really starts. Once you have the best gear and an awesome character, you can't wait until you've reached that point in the game. That's what you're working towards; that's going to make you feel so good. However, whenever you have all the best gear, you just stand there in the game, look at your character, and realize that you don't really have much to do anymore. The whole game kind of feels empty, and you miss the times when you didn't have the best gear yet but could still work towards it.
All this time, I had been telling myself that the fun would start once I achieved my goals, but I failed to realize that I was having the most fun all along. Now, I came to a point in my life where I realized that the exact same thing applies to real life. Just like in a video game, you have more fun getting the gear than actually having it. In real life, you become a lot happier from working toward your goals than from actually achieving them.
I was sitting there on the couch with my best gear on. I had the body I dreamt of having, a girlfriend, a job, and I was no longer broke. I realized that all this time I was working towards this point, I was failing to see that I was already living the life I wanted to live. I was already feeling what I wanted to feel all along, but I was stuck in this illusion that I had to achieve this specific point at some time in the future.
You see, you don't suddenly become happy once you have a specific number in your bank account. It doesn't work like that. You don't suddenly go from depressed to happy the very day you get a girlfriend or a promotion at work. The real way to become happy is to see yourself consistently working towards your goals on a day-to-day basis. It's by looking in the mirror and seeing that you are slowly but steadily losing weight. It's by talking to that girl and bringing up the courage to ask her out or asking your boss for a promotion.
Even if your boss or that girl says no and rejects you, it is the act of consistently working towards your goals, picking yourself back up from failure, and learning from rejection that is exactly how you become happy and build the life of your dreams. The life of your dreams does not start at the end point; it starts with what you do on a day-to-day basis.
So, I guess there are two main reasons why I wanted to make this video. The first one is that you need to be careful and ensure that you always have something in your life that you can work towards. It doesn't have to be big; it doesn't have to be a business goal or whatever, but you have to have something in life that inspires you and that you can aim for. Otherwise, you're going to have that same feeling in a video game where you just stare at your character, and everything feels empty again.
The second and probably most important thing I want you to know is that all of this means that the life of your dreams is probably a lot closer than you think. Like I said, the life of your dreams does not start at the end point. It starts when you consistently work towards your goals. You could literally be living the life of your dreams several weeks or maybe several days from now if you come up with a solid plan, figure out what you truly want in life, and what you need to do to work towards those things.
If you start working consistently towards them, bring up the courage to break out of your comfort zone, and work hard, you could literally feel the happiest you've ever felt in your entire life several weeks from now. That's not an exaggeration. You could be living the life of your dreams. In fact, a lot of people are living a pretty damn good life already right now.
But just like gamers fail to realize that they were having the best gaming time of their life, these people are failing to appreciate the life they have. They are stuck in a mindset where they believe they are only supposed to be happy once they've achieved certain goals in life. They're waiting until they've reached a certain end point where they have a specific amount of money or the body they've been dreaming of.
The truth is that there is no end point in life. There never is. Once you've achieved a goal, you're either going to feel empty or you'll just have a new goal to work towards. The only thing that really matters is what you do on a day-to-day basis. So, do not ever waste these possibly incredible years of your life being stuck in the idea that your life only starts at a certain point in the future. You could literally be living the life of your dreams right now.