Thank God You’re Here.

The worn-out common formula for happiness:

More happiness = More success = More money. 

You may have noticed – that formula leads us to striving, and stressing, and trying to achieve that which forever remains elusive.

If the common recipe for happiness were accurate, wouldn’t happiness reduce our stress rather than add to it? Wouldn’t we perceive greater happiness in the successful people all around us? And wouldn’t our personal success have yielded greater happiness by now?

Therein lies the problem. We’ve been misled. One of the fundamental tenets of society has led us to a dead end at the wrong end of the happiness spectrum.

“Hard work is not the path to well-being. Feeling good is the path to well-being.”

~ Abraham Hicks

Gracefully adapting to life in an economized society – rather than being dominated by it – allows us to more elegantly flow among life’s rhythms and realities, its trials and challenges. It allows us to craft a new and enhanced personal success formula more harmonized with happiness and contentedness; while reprogramming our way of being to eliminate stress and suffering.

I was dominated by society’s common success formula for many years. I found myself in a beautiful home beyond my means; new cars that were heavily financed; and a credit score where banks literally begged me to accept their credit cards. Even with a successful career it felt like I was in over my head financially. I’d wake up occasionally with night sweats. I was hell-bent on getting more money, more stuff, more acknowledgement from others of how successful I was. A string of ex’s demonstrated my inability to maintain an intimate relationship. Stress and suffering were my norm, and there seemed no way out if I wanted to be successful. Happiness wasn’t an objective that occurred to me – the best I could hope for was less daily stress and anxiety.

Around 2001 I began drawing upon the wisdom of numerous advanced teachers, and adopted some rather unorthodox practices that guided me into heightened states of happiness and greater coping skills to manage my stress. Years later, it has culminated in a better version of ME today than ever before. A masterpiece of a life that amazes me daily. (More about my journey in the About page).

In 2017, I became truly curious about how I arrived at this state. I started wondering, grounded in humility and gratitude, “What did I ever do to deserve this, to bring this about? How in the world did I ever arrive here?”

When I reflected on those questions for weeks and months in-sights emerged about the way it had come about. I realized I had adopted a series of practices over the years to bring me to this joyful state of being. Perfect 20/20 hindsight confirmed that each of those practices was like a puzzle piece. Just as a jigsaw puzzle, a beautiful picture emerged once all the pieces were in place. I came to understand that I’d created a system for happiness based on a collection of timeless universal truths.

Along with revelation of the answers came the inner ambition to share my system with you – to guide you to the lifestyle of your dreams – whatever that may be for you. I set out to define my system in a body of work I call Upgrade Your Lifestyle. As my gift to you, you can obtain a free e-copy of Upgrade Your Lifestyle: 10 Keys to Unlock a Steady State of Happiness by leaving me your email address below. Or, you can buy it in paperback on Amazon.

Why upgrade your lifestyle?

Only you can answer that question for you.

Perhaps your life is overall pretty good. You have a deep appreciation of self – you know who you are, and you don’t put on situational facades. You’ve “done the work” to purge self-limiting messages from your subconscious mind. You’re free of grudges and don’t embody negative feelings. You’re grateful every day for the life you’ve created. You don’t take things personally, so your attitude is normally upbeat and optimistic. Your future’s so bright you gotta wear shades (apologies to Timbuk 3 for borrowing the title of their 1986 single).

If this is you, then you’re blessed. You may have already become the Hero of your life.

But maybe life feels a little sharp and prickly from time to time. Maybe you’ve been a bit frayed at the edges by reading the latest news, or viewing the negative comments on social media posts. Perhaps it seems hard to remain optimistic when you look at what’s happening in the world. There’s too much to do and not enough time to do it; and you’re beginning to feel overwhelmed. Possibly you feel you’re the only adult in the room; and you’re getting frustrated with all the drama around you.

If some of this sounds familiar, you may be stressed. You’re in good company. With the busy lives that most people lead today, it’s not easy to remain calm and centered. Most people, if they’re being objective, would find themselves in this group.

What if you feel like life is a burden? Like everything you ever learned about a successful lifestyle is no longer working? Perhaps you’ve been betrayed by friends or lovers; and you’ve given up  on relationships. Your job may be at risk; or perhaps you’ve been let go by your employer, and you’re drowning in debt. Perhaps you’ve served in a wartime military, and you’re having a hard time fitting in as a peacetime civilian. Maybe you’re struggling with one or several addictions; and they’re winning. You may find that your dominant emotions are anger and outrage that well up from deep within you. Life is growing ever more painful, and you’re wondering if it makes sense to go on with life.

If you connect with some of the examples here, you might be depressed. Chronic depression was rare one or two generations ago. But these days it’s way more common; and many people don’t know where to turn.