Lucy Hale lived on her sister's couch broke for a year and a half, then made money and got a better job, but still felt trapped. She realized chasing bigger benchmarks—new jobs, followers, paychecks—never filled the emptiness inside. Real happiness comes from connecting to something larger than yourself, not from external wins.
I was broke on my sister's couch for a year and a half, and then I started to make some money. I worked so hard to create this financial freedom, but I still didn't feel emotionally free. So I remember it was almost worse than being broke and emotionally broken because you think the job or the followers or the money is going to make you feel more free or more lovable or more enough. And it almost expands your level of unworthiness.
I know this feeling so deeply in my soul. And it was always like, I have these benchmarkers where I'm like, okay, if I just book a job, then I'm going to be happy. And then I'd get the job and I'd be like, yeah, well.
It needs to be bigger.
And it's like, when does it end? It doesn't end. Does money make life easier? Yeah. Does a great job make you happier? Yeah. Is it going to fix the broken parts of you? No. Never. Not ever. The only thing that can do that is you and your connection to something bigger than you. The only thing that's going to make you happy is already within you. You don't need to seek, search, make, spend. But then the great news is, the byproduct of doing that work and getting aligned is then you get the jobs, then you get the money, then you get the people that actually are in alignment with your truest self.
