I came across this post at Positive Psychology News called Why Riches are not Equivalent to Happiness. The post discusses the relationship between money and happiness. In the article, Timothy So writes:
To further elaborate on why the riches are not equivalent to happiness, I adopt the approach used by Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, of looking at happiness as moment-to-moment experience instead of general well-being or flourishing. When we break down happiness into moment-to-moment experience, riches do not necessarily make people happier.
Ed Diener and others argue that happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have. Psychologist Jeff Larsen and Amie McKibban ran experiments to test this concept. People who had more of what they wanted tended to be happier than those who had less, but this effect was mediated by appreciation and gratitude. Simply possessing something is not the key. Happiness comes from appreciating what you have.
Seems to me that happiness is an appreciation of the journey we take as opposed to simply the end result. I believe that finding happiness in your marketing is a key to having success with it.
Too many lawyers are looking for the marketing magic bullet. The one marketing campaign or strategy that will solve all the problems of finding a new client. In essence, they want to win the equivalent of the marketing lottery. The myth is that a) this even exists and b) this will actually bring long-term success to the firm.
True, long-term, successful marketing comes from years of hard work building a reputation, developing relationships, trying new marketing avenues, successfully networking, generating referrals, successfully handing cases and clients, etc. A firm that has had success in marketing over time has done so because they found happiness and satisfaction in the journey they took discovering what worked for them. In fact, they might have actually enjoyed aspects of their marketing and relationship building! If they hated every minute of it they never would have broken through to find what works. Stop searching for the magic marketing bullet and get involved in marketing activities you can find satisfaction in.
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