Page 60 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

shared the stage with him, and I was to go on first. He was in the audience when

I spoke, and I have to admit I had worked harder than I’d ever worked in my life
to prepare for this event.

The participants had heard Deaton before at previous conventions and loved
him, but they’d never heard me. After my presentation was over, they clapped
enthusiastically and as Deaton passed me on his way to the stage he was
beaming with pride as he shook my hand. (Unlike myself, Dennis Deaton has
very little professional jealousy of other speakers. He was happy for my success.
I have to admit that my favorite moment occurred when, after he was introduced,
someone in the audience teasingly shouted out, “Dennis who?”)

Many people get confused and believe that living their true life means
getting lucky and finding a suitable job with an appreciative boss somewhere.
What I have come to realize is that you can live your true life anywhere, in any

job, with any boss.

First find out what makes you happy, and then start doing it. If writing
makes you happy, and you’re not writing for a living, start up a company
newsletter or your own Website. When I first realized that speaking and teaching
made me happy, I started a free weekly workshop. I didn’t wait until something
was offered to me.

Whatever goal you want to reach, you can reach it 10 times faster if you are

happy. In my sales training and consulting, I notice that happy salespeople sell at
least twice as much as unhappy salespeople. Most people think that the
successful salespeople are happy because they are selling more and making more
money. Not true. They are selling more and making more money because they
are happy.

As J.D. Salinger’s character Seymour says in Franny and Zooey, “This
happiness is strong stuff!” Happiness is the strongest stuff in the world. It is
more energizing than a cup of hot espresso on a cold morning. It is more mind-
expanding than a dose of acid. It is more intoxicating than a glass of champagne
under the stars.

If you refuse to cultivate happiness in yourself, you will not be of

extraordinary service to others, and you will not have the energy to create who
you want to be. There is no goal better than this one: to know as you lie on your
deathbed that you lived your true life because you did what made you happy.