Have You Stopped and Asked Yourself What Truly Makes You Happy (Part 1)

So many entrepreneurs are chasing goals, building projects, managing products, and running businesses yet they never stop and ask themselves one simple but powerful question: "What truly makes me happy?"

I’ve met so many entrepreneurs who wake up every morning, start their workday, and keep running from one task to another without realizing they’ve spent years doing things that don’t actually make them happy. And that’s exactly what I talk about in this episode. Because if you don’t pause and ask yourself this question, you might spend your entire life repeating habits, routines, and activities that look productive from the outside, but feel empty inside.

Happiness isn’t about how much you achieve or how busy you stay. It’s about how connected you feel to what you’re doing, and whether it aligns with your mission, your goals, and your future. I share a personal story about the first time someone asked me this question. It happened at a Bible study I was invited to here in Sweden. When the host asked everyone, “What truly makes you happy?” I froze. I had never been asked that before. At 38 years old, that question hit me deeply. It made me reflect on my entire life my work, my habits, my relationships, my purpose.

As I sat there thinking, I started remembering all the moments when I felt genuinely happy not the temporary excitement of buying something or achieving a small win, but the deep, peaceful happiness that fills your heart. And what I discovered was powerful. My happiness came from helping others, contributing, making people smile, seeing kids at the school where I worked laugh and enjoy their day, and feeling like I made a difference. It came from moments of kindness, success, and meaningful work.

That’s when I realized that happiness for entrepreneurs doesn’t come from more followers, more money, or more recognition. It comes from alignment doing what feels right, what feels purposeful, what adds value to others and brings you joy at the same time.

If you’re an entrepreneur who’s been feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or unsure whether what you’re doing still excites you, maybe it’s time to pause and ask yourself this same question. Because once you identify what truly makes you happy, everything else in your business and your life becomes clearer. You’ll know what to say yes to, and what to let go of. You’ll work with more focus, more energy, and more fulfillment.

Don’t wait until years pass to ask yourself this question. Start today. Reflect, write it down, and realign your daily actions with your happiness. Because when you do what truly makes you happy, you don’t just become successful you become fulfilled.

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This episode is a must-listen for anyone who feels like they're constantly striving but never fully arriving. Mohammed’s message will help you reconnect with your power, speak to yourself with more compassion, and rewire the way you think about your worth, so you can start showing up as your whole, confident, and congruent self.

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Transcript

(0:08) Hey everyone, welcome to the Breakthrough Entrepreneur's Show, where we empower entrepreneurs (0:13) to overcome the challenge of work-life balance, burnout, break bad, old, unhealthy, negative (0:20) habits, behaviors, build new habits, create new rituals, new routines. I'm your host, (0:26) Mohamed Faraj, and today our topic is, have you stopped and asked yourself, what truly (0:34) makes you happy? You see, as entrepreneurs, so many of us, we are constantly working, (0:44) focusing on our life, on our business, on our projects, on our products and services, (0:53) but we never stop and pause and ask ourselves, what truly makes me happy? You see, when we (1:05) don't ask ourselves this simple and yet powerful question, I promise you, we spend many years (1:15) in our lives, unfortunately, and we have wasted so much time, so many months, so many years (1:27) in our lives, and we don't realize that we've been doing things that weren't truly making us (1:36) happier. And when you don't ask yourself this question, you will end up spending all your (1:45) entire life doing things, repeating certain habits, repeating certain routines, attending (1:53) certain activities or events, or doing things that are not truly making you a happy person. (2:04) And you look back at your years, you look back at your life in the past, and you tell yourself, (2:13) wow, I've been doing things, I've been attending events and activities, I have visited places, (2:23) and I have spent a big chunk of my life on these things, on these places, on these activities, (2:31) on these events, and now I just found out that I've been doing things that really are not making me (2:41) a happy person, that are not aligned with my mission, with my goals, with my dreams, (2:48) with my future, with my happiness. So this is a powerful question that so many entrepreneurs (2:58) should ask themselves, this question, so they can really identify what truly makes them happy. (3:07) So in this topic, in this episode, I'm going to talk about this area in our life, (3:15) and I'm going to share with you a simple practice that you can make in your daily entrepreneurial (3:23) life, so you can identify the things that make you happy, and you can remove, block, (3:33) or throw away anything that is not making you happy, that is not making you a healthy person, (3:40) that is not making you a fulfilled person, that is not bringing any happiness into your heart, (3:47) into your life.So why is it important for us as entrepreneurs to ask ourselves this question, (3:55) to stop, pause, and ask ourselves this question? You see, our time is very important, (4:03) and the kind of lifestyle that we are living determines whether we are living a happy life (4:11) or not. So as entrepreneurs, we have a mission in our life, we have goals, we have dreams, (4:17) we have a vision for our future, and time is one of our best and invaluable assets. (4:27) So we want to make sure that we do things that truly make us happy, and we want to be intentional (4:35) about our time, about where are we spending our life, are we spending our time, are we spending (4:44) our life on things that are really making us happy or not? So when we don't reflect on this (4:52) question, when we don't ask ourselves this question, we will end up wasting a big chunk of (4:59) our lives, we will end up wasting so much time every day, every week, every month, every year, (5:08) and we found out that why the hell were we doing this? Why the hell were we repeating this? (5:16) Why the hell were we attending places, events, activities, and they weren't making us happy? (5:24) Like, were they a good use of our time? Wouldn't it be better if I would be doing things that are (5:34) really or truly making me happy instead of wasting my time on this? You see, so many of us, (5:44) we focus on our business, we focus on our future, we focus on our goals, and sometimes we end up (5:53) being stressed, overwhelmed, frustrated, because we don't really know what our mission is, we don't (6:02) really know what truly makes us happy, we don't really know whether if this business is worth it (6:10) or not, or what are we working on? What are we doing in our lives? Who are we helping? Who are (6:17) we supporting? Is it worth it or not? Am I doing things in my daily entrepreneurial life that (6:26) truly brings happiness to my heart or not? Or am I wasting my time? So, when we really identify (6:34) our mission, when we really identify the source of our happiness, what makes us happy, I promise you, (6:42) stress, overwhelming, frustration, feeling worried about the unknown, or feeling anxiety in your (6:51) business, in your daily entrepreneurial life, all this will disappear.You will find a reason (6:58) why you are doing. You will feel happy, you will feel emotionally connected to what is important, (7:07) or what is, what does matter in your daily entrepreneurial life. You know what you're doing, (7:13) you know why you're doing, and you know where you will end up in the future, (7:19) because you identify your happiness, you identify what truly makes you happy, and that way you can (7:29) focus, you can be laser focused, concentrated highly on what is important, on what makes you (7:37) a happy, fulfilled entrepreneur.Because so many of us, we will waste so much time (7:45) in our daily life, because we never reflected, because we never asked ourselves this question, (7:50) because we never found out exactly what makes us happy. You see, I identified this question, or (8:01) I learned this reflection, when I remember one day, it was last year, I was invited by a group of (8:11) friends, and they had a Bible study. I'm not Christian, and I don't read the Bible, but I was (8:20) invited by some friends that I have in my local area here in Sweden, and they invited me one day (8:27) for a Bible study, and we would sit and just watch some program on TV, and then after the program, (8:37) after 30 minutes, we would sit in a circle, and just ask ourselves questions, and reflect (8:46) on these questions.So while I was sitting and surrounded with those friends, and one of our (8:55) friends who was hosting this meeting, so he asked this question, he just threw that question for all (9:03) of us, and we would go one by one, and reflect, and answer the question. So I remember when that (9:14) person, the person who was hosting that meeting, he asked this question for all of us, and (9:23) it was so amazing, it was very transformation question, where he asked us, what truly (9:31) makes you happy? Like it felt so simple question, but to be honest with you, no one had asked me (9:41) this question, no one had reminded me about what truly makes me happy, or what can I do (9:51) in order to become a very happy person, and no one told me that, what are the things that are (9:59) making you happy, that you never realized, or you never paid attention, or you never noticed in your (10:07) entrepreneurial life. So when that guy asked this question, and I felt so surprised, because (10:17) I'm 38 years old, and to this day, to be honest with you, I've never been in a situation, (10:25) or in a group, or in a meeting, even though I have worked with so many people, in many jobs, (10:32) I've studied, I've had many friends, I have visited many people in my daily life, (10:40) I lived my life, almost all my entire life, with my family, but no one actually asked me this (10:49) question, like I don't know, it felt so strange, it felt so weird for me, because I realized that (10:58) I'm 38 years old, and the whole time I never stopped, paused, and just asked myself this (11:07) simple question, and reflected on this question, it felt so odd to me.So when it was my turn to (11:18) answer this question, what makes you happy, I just became silent, I just stopped, and I became (11:26) silent, and I remember, I was just thinking with myself, and I was trying to figure out what truly (11:35) makes me happy, and right away, directly at this point, I was thinking about my past, I was thinking (11:44) about all the past memories, events, activities that I have attended, the people that I had in my (11:53) life, I was thinking about all the moments, all the memories, all the experiences, I was searching (12:03) in my own personal story, about what did make me happy before, what were those moments where I felt (12:13) so happy, so excited, so driven, so enthusiastic, like I would almost want to cry, because of that (12:24) emotional and joyful feelings. So I was reviewing my past, I was thinking about my past, I was (12:33) trying to remember when was the last time I felt so happy, what was that thing that made me happy (12:41) at that moment, was it an activity, a certain activity, or was it a certain event, or did I do (12:50) something nice, or something kind, or something useful for someone else, and I was feeling so (12:59) happy when I'd done it, did I help someone, did I do a good job in my work, or at the school, (13:09) or in my daily life with my family, what was the source of my happiness, so I was trying to think (13:18) about all those moments, all those memories in my early life, and then I found out that, (13:30) oh my God, I remember most of my memories, most of the things that I remember, I felt so happy, (13:41) so excited, so driven, like I was truly happy from the bottom of my heart, not like surface (13:49) level happiness, like I was really, really happy those days, those moments, in those moments, (13:58) so I found out that what really and truly makes me happy is success, like succeeding in anything, (14:07) making progress, and doing kindness for others, helping others, supporting others, improving (14:15) other people's lives, and I am someone who's very kind, who's very generous, who's very helpful, (14:23) who's very nice, so to be honest with you, I didn't answer the question right away, I didn't (14:31) reflect on the question right away, so I asked to pause, I asked for that person to take other (14:40) people's turn, until I just, I just figured out what made me happy before, and what truly makes (14:49) me happy now, in the present moment, so after they came back to me, and it was my turn, so I (14:57) answered them, I said, to be honest with you, what truly makes me happy, like makes me really happy (15:07) in my heart is success, I love success, I love being healthy, I love succeeding in anything, (15:14) I love doing something, and when I do a good job, when it goes well, I feel so happy, I feel so (15:23) excited, so driven, so enthusiastic, I feel like crazy that day, like the happiness comes to my (15:32) heart, and my heart becomes a home, like emotional home for that happiness state, so I love making (15:43) progress, I love getting things done, I love working, I love doing meaningful, purposeful, (15:51) impactful work, I love completing tasks, projects, I love studying, I love learning, I love and enjoy (16:01) a lot making progress, getting better in something, in any skill, or a habit, or a routine, (16:07) or if I'm aiming for something, I love success, success makes me happy, success is a part of my (16:16) identity, of who I am, and I love being happy in this world, and doing things for others, (16:27) I love supporting people, I love helping people, every time someone tells me, thank you for doing (16:34) this, you are awesome, you're great, you're wonderful, you're generous, you are lovable, (16:40) you are unique, it makes me so happy when people give me nice compliments, and when they tell me (16:50) good, nice words, or when I do a kindness act, or something nice to others, when I'm helping people, (17:00) when I'm saying nice words to others, it makes me so happy, like I would feel so joyful that day, (17:08) I would feel so happy inside my heart, and I would feel so positive in my life, and I even sometimes (17:20) ask myself like, why in those days, why in those moments, I was feeling negative, (17:27) why was I feeling worried, fearful, and anxiety, why was I wasting my time thinking negative, (17:38) and feeling negatively about life, because there are many things that are making me happy, (17:45) and there are many things in my life, if I do them, all I see is happiness, like they drive (17:53) so much results, so much happiness into my life, so I told myself, why was I wasting my time, (18:02) wasting my energy, thinking, feeling negatively about things, about life, I am so happy person, (18:10) I love being happy, and I love making other people happy as well, I love sharing my happiness with (18:18) others, I'm not selfish person, I'm not just thinking about myself, I'm not that person who (18:24) always says me, me, me, me, no, I'm someone who says we, I love being at the same level as others, (18:35) I love making other people happy, I love helping others, I love contributing other people's (18:43) success, and I remember when I worked at my old job, at the school, working with the kids, (18:50) working with the students, working with the teachers, and I would find myself feeling happy, (18:59) excited so often at that job, at that work, why, because I was constantly focusing on doing things (19:07) that really make me happy, every time a student or a kid comes to me, ask for help, and I would (19:15) help, I would never say no, I don't like saying no, I would say yes, I will help you, and if I (19:21) can't, I could just apologize, or say sorry, or I'm doing my best, or I can guide you to someone (19:32) else who can help you, so I was feeling so happy, and the students, the kids would feel so happy (19:39) every time they met me, because they expect that every time they meet me, or they come to me, (19:46) or whenever they need help, they would expect that I will help them, I will stand for them, (19:53) I will support them, I will do whatever it takes, I will do my best to stand for them, to help them, (19:59) and to make them happy, so I was playing with the kids so often, I was doing games, and physical (20:07) activities, and preparing, planning sport activities during the school day, for the kids, for the (20:14) students, because my main goal was to make them happy, I love making them happy, and when they (20:23) are happy, I am happy too, so I was doing things that make me happy, and that was doing games, (20:33) and physical activities that I learned from YouTube, or watching other schools, or colleges, (20:39) or universities, or high schools in America, how they were performing, or executing like games, (20:46) and physical activities, so I was learning them from YouTube, and I was performing at that school, (20:52) and I noticed that what made those kids, what makes those students happy in their daily school (21:01) day, is doing fun, enjoyable, physical activities, and games, so I told myself, why can't I do (21:11) something that makes me happy, and makes those people happy as well, so I can share my happiness (21:18) with them as well, so I found out, I identified kids, and students happiness is connected to those (21:27) games, and physical activities, they want to enjoy their day, they want to move, they want to use (21:34) their time to do fun, enjoyable activities, because we don't want the school day to be boring, or we (21:43) don't want for students to think that school is boring, or it's just all about sitting in the (21:51) classrooms, attending lessons, listening to the teacher, and they would feel tired, sluggish, (21:59) low energy, because of the hours they are spending at the school, so I wanted to do something at that (22:06) school, that makes them happy, I wanted to do something impactful, something that will make (22:14) them truly happy, so I repeated that, I did games, and physical activities every day, and I found out (22:23) that time goes fast, students are being healthy, they're moving their bodies, because they sit a (22:31) lot in the classroom, and attending lessons, and I found out that they love it, they enjoy doing (22:39) games, and physical activities, and their time also goes faster, and then they finish their school day, (22:47) and the parents come, and pick them up, and they go home feeling happy, excited, and they tell their (22:53) parents about their school day, that they enjoyed their school day, that they had so much fun during (23:01) the school day, because they were studying, they were attending lessons, at the same time, they were (23:07) socializing, they were talking to each other, they were building good healthy relationships with each (23:13) other, and at the same time, they were doing fun, enjoyable, physical activities, and games, (23:20) and for me, in my role, every time I came home, after working at that school, oh man, like the happiness (23:30) is incredibly in a high level in my heart, I would play music, and I would reward myself, like (23:39) I don't know, preparing some hamburgers, or cooking a healthy, delicious meal, like rewarding myself (23:47) for doing a good job at my work, and making those kids, and students happy, and I made myself (23:56) happy as well, so it was win-win, and even though, even though I was making those kids happier, (24:08) even their parents, when they used to meet me, outside the school, or outside the work time, like (24:14) at the grocery stores, or in sport events, they would thank me, they would credit my effort, and (24:23) they would appreciate all my effort, all my time invested in making their kids, their students (24:30) happier, and I would get nice compliments, nice words from those parents, and they would tell me (24:39) like, Mohammed, you're a really good guy, you're doing a great job at work, you're helping our kids, you're (24:46) making them happier, healthier in their school days, without you, the schoolyard feels boring, and time (24:56) feels very slow, but you make school days very enjoyable experiences, and days, and when those (25:04) parents tell me these things, and I would feel even more happier, even more excited, even more (25:10) driven, and I would plan, I would think in many ways to make those kids happy, I would contribute (25:18) in their success, I would be volunteer sometimes, and help them even outside the school day, (25:26) and I would help them with Halloween events, or project management events, or I would (25:33) prepare nice, enjoyable, fun games, and activities outside the school time, just something kind, just (25:42) something extra for the kids, because I am trying to make them happy, and when they are happy, I am (25:49) happy as well, so I noticed that I love being this person, like this is what truly makes me (25:58) happy, I love building, designing a business, I love building products, services, I love (26:07) helping my audience, helping people with tips, strategies, sharing insights, sharing with them past (26:16) mistakes, failures, bad habits, so this is my goal, and I'm doing something meaningful, I'm doing (26:25) something purposeful, I'm doing something that brings so much happiness, and positive energy (26:32) into my life, who doesn't want to be happy in their daily life? Who? We all want to be happier (26:41) in our lives, but it's very important that we reflect, that we identify, that we stop, pause, (26:50) and ask ourselves this question as early as possible, not years after, not when you are (27:00) in 30 years old, or when you are 40 years old, or 50 years old, like I did, and you finally ask (27:10) yourself, what truly makes me happy? No, start from today, start from as early as possible, (27:19) ask yourself what truly makes you happy, so that way you can repeat things, that you can do things, (27:27) that you can become aware where you are spending your time, unfortunately, and it's so sad to see (27:35) that a lot of people, they're spending a big chunk of their time, they're spending so much (27:43) money, so much energy, so much effort on things, that they don't realize that it's not making them (27:52) happy, and they realize, they become aware years after they have repeated those things many times (28:03) in their life, they never ask themselves, whether they are doing things, that are truly making them (28:11) happy or not, so as an entrepreneur, you want to build a business, you want to design an (28:19) entrepreneurial life, or a lifestyle for yourself, so it's better to design your life, or your (28:27) entrepreneurial life, or your lifestyle, based on what truly makes you happy, based on what truly (28:35) makes you a healthy, happy, successful, fulfilled entrepreneur, not on based what you don't like, (28:45) what is not making you happy, and you are wasting your time, you are wasting your energy, you are (28:53) wasting so much effort doing things, that are not really making you happy, you just do them, you're (29:01) just influenced by your environment, you are influenced by other people, you are influenced by (29:09) your story, you're influenced by your past, all of these, they are leading you to do things, that are (29:19) not really making you happy, but you never pay attention, you never notice, you never ask yourself, (29:27) you never stop, pause, and ask yourself, you never reflect, you never sit with yourself, think with (29:35) yourself, that what am I doing today, what have I done in my life, have I done something great (29:44) in my life, who am I meant to be in my life, what is my mission, what are my values, what do I love (29:54) doing in my life, what can I do in my life, that will