One of my favorite silver linings of the pandemic was the daily calls with the MG100 community. Because Marshall curated a group of people from all over the world, I was privy to insights and happenings from so many places and perspectives.
Once the pandemic urgency slowed, the calls became less frequent but every Monday we would gather as Marshall shared ideas and garnered feedback for his latest book, The Earned Life.
It has been a while since I was on one of the Monday morning community calls, but I was so glad I caught this one. The topic was false comparisons. (i.e. “when I ____, I’ll be ____”). To name a few examples “when I’m thin, I’ll be happy,” or how about this one, “when I make more money, I’ll be happy,” and for me personally, “when I have a best-selling book, I’ll have made it.”
The point of this particular call was essentially “we should do things to do them.” To draw another comparison, one should make money to make money, not because we think it will get us something else. At one point, someone on the call shared a very interesting quote from Chester Elton which says, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”
I love this quote because it connects so well to what I share in The Connector’s Advantage regarding the idea of abundance. One of the ways to adopt the mindset of abundance is to not compare yourself against others. Additionally, abundance is not achieved by constantly tracking or counting things in your life.
Marshall’s latest book is one that inspires personal reflection, release and acceptance. Taking inspiration from Buddhism, Goldsmith reveals that the key to reframing the past is to live life without regrets.
Marshall has been a guide for me and his latest book, The Earned Life: Lose Regret, Choose Fulfilment, can be a guide for anyone to close the gap between what they plan to achieve and what they “actually get done — and avoid the trap of existential regret, the kind that reroutes destinies and persecutes our memories.”
Take some time to reflect on your own life; what in your life are you pursuing because you think it will get you something else? Identify that thing and know that there is another option: being happy for the sake of being happy. Don’t hold happiness at arms’ length until …. The joy you seek is within your grasp.