Aaron Ross argues that constant happiness isn't life's purpose, despite what self-help culture sells. Authenticity matters more: anger, sadness, and other emotions are natural and can deepen connection. Stop feeling guilty for not being happy all the time.
Cool. Oh, we started? Alright. Hey, good morning. I'm here in Maui with my beautiful wife and we went out for a walk this morning. I'm here and I just thought this would be a great chance to do a little video because one of the things that I've realized, especially this last year or so, is I used to think— there's a while when I started to— when I was coming up with the vision of Pebblestorm and what's Unique Genius and came up with content and teaching purpose, and they're saying, "All right, the purpose of life is happiness, is to be happy." And yes, that's true, it's part of it. But I think what I've seen is that the media, I was at the airport bookstore on the way here, and there's a book called, it's something like "Happy 7 Days a Week," and there's a big guy with this huge smile, hee hee, and I'm thinking, all the media, whether it's me or books or, who knows what, that's telling you that you need to be happy all the time. It's just, it's so off-center. And this book, I didn't even pick it up. I was like, that, it's not true. The image, this idea that you're supposed to be happy all the time is bullshit. You know, the reality is that the purpose of life isn't happiness. It's important to work toward to be happy and to feel happiness, but you can't be happy all the time. And I would say is it's much more important to be authentic and to grow than it is to be— try to be happy all the time. That's just not realistic. And what I mean by that is if you're authentic, it's when you're angry, you're angry. And when you're sad, you're sad. And sometimes it can feel great to like revel in your sadness, which isn't depression, right? When you're just sad or you see a sad story. Last night, my, my wife and I, we watched a really touching video on YouTube and a tearjerker, you know, it felt really good just to get sad like that and empathize and connect. Or if you get angry, to let— to get angry and get it out and then, you know, move on to the next emotion or what you feel. So you're not supposed to be happy all the time. It's not— that's not your purpose. Don't feel guilty if you're not. You know, just be who you are. It's a lot harder than you think and a lot simpler. Anyway, thanks. I really hope this helps you let go some— if you have any guilt around not being happy all the time. Yeah, you're not supposed to be.
