Nobody wants to be broke, but sometimes I feel like it's all in vain. You look on TikTok or Instagram and see someone standing next to a new car or someone very young who just became a millionaire. You start to think, Do I have time? Do I need to chase the next thing to be really happy? The goalpost to be happy seems to be pushed back with every single post on social media. But maybe this is the problem: our happiness is placed on external things rather than looking inside first. Keep reading to find the key to happiness.

When I was in my twenties, I thought that getting material things was the goal in life. I thought it could make you happy. But life has a way of teaching you—usually through pain—because most of us, including myself, can be stubborn at times. Usually, when I'm around older people, I ask life questions. Sitting with my professor while he was helping me was no different.

My professor lived in California for some time, where he ran a successful media company, but decided to move to Texas for personal reasons I won't state due to our conversation being private. But as he was telling his story about why he moved, I kept thinking, Did he regret moving and having to start over? I was wondering if I would be able to do the same thing if I needed to. Then I decided to ask, Was the move worth it? Do you have any regrets?

Without any hesitation, he said no, and he wouldn't do anything over. He said GOD makes no mistakes and everything happens as it should. I appreciated his honesty. There is a wisdom that experience always has over youth. Life will teach you better than any book or paid course can. Sometimes I catch myself feeling the heaviness of my decisions. He later recommended a movie, Finding  Joe, which talks about the hero's journey. He also gave me a quote by Joseph Campbell: "Find your bliss."

The key thing I took from this conversation was a couple of things:
Life isn't a straight line. There will be decisions you make based on the situation. You don't have control over every outcome. Proverbs chapter 5, verse 21 says, For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.

The last principle I took from our conversation was that happiness starts from within. The internal controls the external. If you are happy inside, then your outside will always reflect that. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 3 says, Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of GOD, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

​Everyone should want an abundant life, but maybe it's never what we accumulate, but rather the happiness inside we accumulate that really matters.