Money Does Not Buy Better Habits

Money Does Not Buy Better Habits Im not averse to earning money. That would be silly. I am, however,  much more concerned with outcome than income. A common mistake we tend to make is that we often assign  money as our primary driver of happiness:  If I make $X, then Ill be happy. Once this happens thoughâ€"once we earn $Xâ€"we quickly discover that the equation is broken. There is, after all, a reason why most lottery winners end up broke: bad habits. Besides, there are plenty of miserable millionaires and countless happy poor folks. A much better conductor of individual contentment, then, has little to do with money:  our  daily habits. Said another way, the outcome of better habits is more rewarding than your income will ever be. You see, we have a much better chance of radically improving our happiness by just changing our habitsâ€"by forming new, empowering daily rituals.  And we neednt earn  exorbitant  amounts of cash to do so. High income or no, we must  avoid passivity in favor of active, engaged, deliberate tasks. We must acknowledge our mistakes, make the right direction-changing decisions, and then take incremental actions each day. Over time, as we move farther in the right direction, well be able to wave at our bad habits in the rearview, happy and content, driving toward a more meaningful  horizon. This is all, of course, not as easy as it sounds. But, then again, its simpler than you may think. Read this essay and 150 others in our new book, Essential.