Dr. Greg Gomez, clinical director, explains that people who treat their life like a startup “are often more fulfilled”

Achievements we attain in life can bring us a sense of accomplishment and with it a surge of joy and self-satisfaction. Once experienced, the search for that high is one of the forces behind entrepreneurs’ ability to abandon their comfort zone allowing them to take risks so that they can grow.

Psychologists say that people should employ that type of mindset to our everyday lives to find happiness. “When people treat their lives with the same creativity and persistence as an entrepreneur does with a startup, they are often more fulfilled,” explains Dr. Greg Gomez, a marriage and family therapist at The Oasis in southeastern California.

Taking a leap of faith to find happiness in life

Treating our lives like it’s a startup is not some crazy concept, but backed up by scientific research. Good Magazine cites a 2023 study which states: “Although risk is often considered in the context of maladaptive behaviors, risks can also be positive, allowing individuals to pursue meaningful goals in a socially accepted way.”

Regardless of age or gender, the researchers found that “higher positive risk-taking was associated with better general health, greater professional and social activity, higher satisfaction with life, as well as higher sensitivity to reward, tolerance to ambiguity, and future time perspective.” While at the same time “lower sensitivity to punishment.”

Furthermore, Dr. Gomez is not alone in this belief. Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor and social scientist has spoken and written extensively about how we can build better lives for ourselves in which we find fulfillment and joy through a better understanding of ourselves and changing habits.

However, change is not easy for many as Brooks points out. “We are able to imagine ourselves in a future state, feeling chagrin for a decision we’re making right now, which in turn affects that decision.”

This “risk avoidance,” continuing down the path that we know, even though it may be making us miserable, just because it is “the safe path” rather than taking a leap of faith into the unknown, is one of the biggest obstacles that we must overcome. Just trudging on with a hated job, unsatisfying relationship and keeping with the status quo may actually be the more dangerous route to take and harming our mental health.

Brooks says that you shouldn’t go off taking risks with wild abandon, “acting on impulse,” but should be done “right” with careful planning if you are willing to take a risk in order to increase your happiness. “Making a plan allows you to savor the person you want to become,” Brooks says.

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