Someone asked me two questions recently during a mentoring call.
“How did you start in business?”
And—
“Are you happy?”

Now, I get the first one all the time. People want the blueprint. The story. The shortcut.
But the second one hit different. It stopped me.

Because are you happy? is a deceptively simple question.
And it’s one we don’t ask enough—not to ourselves, and definitely not to others.

We’re obsessed with how.
How to scale.
How to get more followers.
How to be more productive.
How to win.

But what’s the point of winning if it doesn’t make you happy?
What if all the accolades, all the growth, all the 3am hustle sessions…
still leave you feeling empty?

Too many people connect their happiness to external metrics.
Revenue targets. House size. Instagram likes.
A fancy LinkedIn title with slashes and keywords that sound impressive but mean nothing to your actual soul.

But here's a wild idea:
What if you get to be happy before you hit your goals?
What if you don’t need to earn happiness through achievement?
What if you gave yourself permission to be happy... now?

I’m not saying every day is sunshine and almond croissants.
Some days I want to scream into a pillow because my daughters have been fighting about who looked at the other one first.
Other days I question if I’m doing anything right in business, marriage, or life.
But through all of it, I can still say:
Yeah—I’m happy.

Not because everything is perfect.
But because I’ve worked hard to define success on my terms.
Because I’ve stopped chasing happiness like it’s a prize.
Because I’ve realised it’s a practice, not a finish line.

So, let me ask you—
​Are you happy?​
Not will you be happy once you [fill in the blank].
Are you happy, now?

That might just be the question worth answering this week.

— Broden