This morning at Catalyst, our CrossFitters ran through a sprinkler.
Last week, a visiting CrossFitter told me, “I’ve been doing this since 2012, and that’s the most fun I’ve ever had doing CrossFit.” She was in town for our Saturday morning class.
On Thursday, I was talking in our private TwoBrain group about rewarding purchases, and mentioned two “rewards” I’ve recently received: one, a mug, for paying cash for a new car; the second, an electric toothbrush, for paying cash for my daughter’s new braces. One comment I received was, “I love how you just spent over $40k in cash and you’re still happy as a ham.”
How are these three separate instances related?
This is how: You become happy by making others happy.
But first, the “money” talk: Money IS necessary for happiness. At least, to a certain point.
Emerging studies show the “happiness quotient” is different across the world, but generally falls around $70,000. After you net $70,000, happiness improves only marginally as income rises. After you earn 70k, you need to find a new way to create joy in your life.
What DOES make you happier? Service to others.
If you follow Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, you’ll see that joy is really achieved by making others happy. Yes, you need security (money) FIRST. But after you’ve achieved a level at which your basic and recreational needs are met, only service can provide increasing happiness.
Trust me on this. The secret to life is making other people happy.
This is exactly how our Mentorship works: we get some of the best people in the world (gym owners) to their “Perfect Day.” We help them achieve the first few levels of happiness (security and prosperity; more than enough for themselves.) But we don’t stop there. Successful gym owners are then taught how to expand their services to help more people.
Different types of “work” make different people happy. In this short slideshow, I explore the various types of work and thinking. I’ll be covering this topic in my next book, “Leveling Up”, but this is great food for thought:
Leveling Up Slideshow: Owner to Entrepreneur
Owning a CrossFit box has never never been about money for most owners. It’s about happiness and service.
Money is necessary to achieve the base levels of happiness. I teach Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs a lot, and money is absolutely critical for moving past the base levels. If a gym isn’t profitable, its ability to provide service – and joy – goes away forever.
But eventually, the pursuit of happiness revolves around service. Making OTHER people happy is what really makes YOU happy. My wife loves her new car, and so I’m happy. I like my old truck instead. My daughter loves her new teeth, and that makes me happy. My members liked running through the sprinkler, playing Spikeball on Saturday, and doing their workouts outside on our new concrete pad…which I could afford because our gym is profitable. The foundation of sustainable business practices makes my service better.
And my real service isn’t exercise. It’s JOY.
The top hashtag for our gym on Instagram? #happygym .
Here’s the question, if you don’t own a box: can you get to HAPPY at your current job, or is it time to move past money to SERVICE?
The question, if you DO own a box, is this: Are you profitable enough to be happy yourself, and improve your service to create joy in your members? Or are you working 15 hours per day, selling exercise and starving?
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