We’ve all heard the phrase “reaching for the brass ring.”

It seems like a reasonable enough notion – to strive for an accomplishment and be at the top of your field or workplace, or to make more money.

However, when you peel back the layers, there’s much more to the story, and the moral of that story is not so black and white. You must ask yourself, what happens when you finally grab that brass ring?

Sure, the ring in question is a metaphor.

Yet, this abstract notion involves a moment, accomplishment, goal or objective at the end of a personal or career growth journey. Additionally, it offers a sense of satisfaction.

You then must ponder, what happens after you’re satisfied? Because that feeling doesn’t last.

Once you’ve reached those heights and landed upon a specific benchmark, life has to go on beyond satisfaction. The imaginary brass ring you’re wearing won’t yield endless happiness; it just turns into an accessory or something you write on your resume. There’s still the remainder of your career, life and future to consider.

Satisfaction and metaphorical brass rings – and the feelings they conjure – are mere illusions. Moreover, they pale in comparison to the power of contentment and its positive, lasting impact on your career, life and future.

Remove The Conditions On Your Happiness

Your overall happiness shouldn’t hinge upon a specific accomplishment. Such an outlook is conditional, based on a demand posing as an achievement. Worst of all, it’s a demand that never gets met.

Operating this way means you’ll continue to reach for something that’s either impermanent or wasn’t ever there.

Once you achieve this mistaken idea of satisfaction, what’s the reason to keep working? Where is your motivation? The last time you achieved satisfaction, you were soon no longer happy again, so what’s the point of moving forward?

Removing the conditions from your happiness is integral to finding your inner peace and long-term success.

Find peace outside your achievements and accomplishments, and let that peacefulness fuel you. Your ambitions and dreams aren’t a carrot you dangle in front of yourself. Instead, your dedication to your work should be a product of your inner peace and, more specifically, your contentment.

Satisfaction implies a finish line for your hard work and happiness.

Conversely, contentment means understanding that the work never ends. You keep pushing forward and improving even though you haven’t arrived.

Do You Want To Make More Money? Then Don’t Rest On Your Laurels

Patting yourself on the back for an accomplishment has diminishing returns. For one, it creates the illusion of an end in sight, a false finish line.

That non-existent finish line will work against you once you convince yourself you’ve seen it. You’re likely to cut corners to get there quicker, so your work is completed once and for all.

Unfortunately, there is no finish line whether you want to make more money or strive for greater heights in any aspect of your life.

On the other hand, contentment frees you of any notions of a finish line.

Your contentment means you can pat yourself on the back, love and accept who you are, whether you achieve your small goals or not.

Contentment means these factors won’t impede your happiness because you’ll understand that work never ends and is merely a life function.

This realization allows you to focus your energy more practically. You’ll realize satisfaction is an illusion and will be content with that. Then, you can budget your efforts more effectively toward delivering at work daily because you won’t be motivated by fear.

Go Against The Societal Grain

The people who run the world want you to base your happiness on satisfaction and unhappiness on dissatisfaction.

It serves these societal rule-makers for you to fuel your ambitions with your fear of dissatisfaction and failure. When you’re driven by dissatisfaction, you live in a world of fear.

All people are taught to operate with the above mentality.

You’re told that you’ve failed if you don’t amass a certain amount of wealth, reach heights in your career, or achieve life benchmarks (e.g., having children, getting married). In fact, society will make you feel worthless if you “fall short” of these expectations.

Whether through media or what you’re told by mentors or loved ones, it’s continually reinforced that you don’t deserve love if you don’t become “somebody.”

Your happiness shouldn’t be a product of meeting societal expectations; it should be the other way around. Reaching a societal benchmark should be a product of your happiness and contentment outside of them.

So, don’t let anybody tell you that you’re unworthy.

Only you get to decide your worthiness. Your personal progress doesn’t have anything to do with your job, the money in your bank account, the size of your house, or the car you drive. It has to do with who you are on the inside.

Flip Your Path On Its Head

The first crucial step to stop searching for satisfaction and striving for contentment is to realize that your ending is the beginning.

For example, starting the work to improve, make more money, and receive business coaching is the last step – your massive accomplishment, not what comes at the end of these efforts. The courage to embark on this journey should fuel your self-esteem, not the final results. 

Your sense of self-worth shouldn’t depend on accomplishing your goals. Instead, those accomplishments will be the fun part of the process – you won’t fear failure.

Say Goodbye To Fear

Trying your hand at content marketing, paid ads, or social media to help make you more money should be a highly-engaging process. It should fuel your fire. However, it won’t fuel your fire if your reasons for working on these aspects of your business are rooted in fear.

These new experiences should be experiments. They should be an opportunity to learn what works and what doesn’t. You’ll keep developing your skills and knowledge in these areas without the albatross of potential “failure” or dissatisfaction hanging around your neck.

You must be mindful that the work never ends. So, fear is a useless tool because it will weigh you down during this endless journey. Accept that you must keep pushing forward, find contentment in that reality, and happiness won’t be such a distant dream.

Do these insights resonate with you? If so, schedule a strategy call with Fit to Profit today!