Why Hitting Your Goals Won’t Make You Happy — But This Will

I remember the day the executed contract was delivered.

Nine months of work paid off, and I landed the massive deal.

I’d busted my ass for it, and when the deal came through, I was nothing short of ecstatic.

I was happy my hard work paid off, but I was mostly happy about the 75k commission check I earned.

That money was spent before it ever hit my bank account because the money would make up for the fact that the work to create it sucked.

But a couple of things happened that derailed my win.

My company changed course on the fly and determined they would pay the 75k over 3 years, so I’d be getting 25k instead of 75k.

I understand 25k is a tremendous amount of money, but this change wrecked me.

I was banking on that 75k; like I said, it was already spent, and it would make it all “worth it.”

It would give meaning to the meaningless, and my happiness and self-image depended on it.

Secondly, when years 2 and 3 came around, the 25k I was owed for each year magically disappeared, and no one “remembered” the arrangement.