When I share these predictable steps for creating something remarkable, some people get discouraged. They feel that it's going to be a long and difficult road ahead to build a profitable business, or a hot product or service.

While the idea of building every part of a business in a remarkable way feels heavy and daunting from the outset, the experience of actually doing it isn't.

The experience of building something that gets talked about is often the most rewarding and energetically uplifting thing you'll ever do.

Better yet, the results of having a remarkable business can be staggering. You don't just make wages, you make profits. You don't just help your clients, you blow their minds and make a difference to their lives. You don't just get a pat on the back, you get people raving about you!

There's little joy in the endless cycle of trying to come up with the ‘easy money-making idea’. There is lots of joy in pushing something to be truly a stand-out.

Everything you consume requires energy – either to digest it, or to maintain it in your life.

Creating is the opposite. When you create, energy flows through you. The act of creating wakes you up and makes you feel joyous.

If you don't believe me, go and look at the Forbes Rich List of self-made billionaires. Hardly any of them are retired. Almost none of them have used their wealth to lean back from life and sit on a beach endlessly consuming stuff. Most of them are typically engaged in the joy of creating, not the burden of consuming.

Steve Jobs was diagnosed with cancer but chose to spend his final years pouring himself into the act of creating. He could have chosen to do literally anything. No one would have judged him harshly if he chose to retire. Why did he stay in the game? Because creating is joyous. Leaning in is joyful.

Contrast Steve Jobs with the majority of lotto winners. It's widely known that most lotto winners become depressed and unhappy. They suddenly have the power to rapidly consume everything they ever dreamed of, and it sucks the life out of them.

For starters, the mere fact that they bought a lotto ticket shows you they were leaning back on life, looking for an exit. They then get the money and they go out to consume. Everything they buy comes with obligations to maintain it or digest it. It's exhausting and there's no long-term joy in it.

Many people have fond memories of their college years. They were broke, they hardly owned a stick of furniture, they had to forage for money under the sofa just to buy lunch, but they still remember this as a great time in their life. The reason people loved their college years was because they weren't weighed down with stuff, they were busy creating all the time and they didn't have the means to consume.

College, for most people, was a time when they had to invent their identity but, for some reason, people stop.

Keep doing it, keep reinventing yourself, keep creating.

CREATE THE FUTURE, DON'T CONSUME THE PAST

Don't fantasise about going back to the past, as there's simply no such thing as ‘going back to the way things were’. Life doesn't move backwards, it moves forward. There's no time machine coming to pick you up. You are not going back to your college years, the great year you had in 2003, or the good old pre-Brexit days. You are moving forward in time and the only way things will be better is if you create them as better.

Let me share a typical example of what happens when you try to go back in time. I once spontaneously went on an amazing holiday with friends to a place we'd never been before.

Without much planning, we had to invent the trip as we travelled and we created the experiences on the go. We discovered unique places, we found ourselves in surprising and humorous situations, we met interesting people we didn't expect to meet. It turned out to be amazing and, the following year, we tried to do it again by going back to the same place and attempting to do the same things.

When we got there it was not as fun. We tried to recreate ‘spontaneously meeting those hilarious people’ and they weren't there. We attempted to revisit that ‘magical spot where everything just clicked’ and it just didn't click.

Why didn't it happen? Because we were approaching the experience as consumers. We were trying to consume an experience of the past rather than create something right now.

If you want more joy, stop consuming. Stop consuming people, things or events and stop trying to ‘get back’ the past. Start creating the future. Create yourself, based on who you want to be. Create your work, based on what you want to do. Create your life, based on the legacy you want to leave behind.

CONSUMING IS A DRAIN, CREATING IS A JOY

Now let's apply this to everyday life. It's time to stop reading books and write your own book. Stop attending events, plan your own event. Stop reading the news, start creating something newsworthy. Don't go looking for answers, start answering questions for others. Stop buying products, start creating your own products to deliver to the world.

Stop waiting for the right time, start creating the space for magic to happen.

When you fill your day with acts of consumption, you will burn out. When you replace your entire day with acts of creation, you will have energy and be able to make the most of these exciting times we're living through.