Probably every one of you reading this was asked this question at least once as a child:

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

The answers most likely fell in the range of doctor, lawyer, athlete, astronaut, or a teacher. But little did we know that as we got older, it wasn’t necessarily about the title we achieve in life that defines our success. But how happy we are with the role we get. Security, purpose, freedom, and joy.

Those who have those are the real winners here.

What’s strange is that John Lennon, co-founder of the Beatles, understood this long before probably any of us did when we were kids. As a child, his teacher asked him that very question in class as a type of assignment. On that piece of paper, he didn’t write down a career. He just wrote one word: happy.

His teacher pulled him aside later in class and told him he didn’t understand the assignment. But Lennon wasn’t going to get pushed around. He simply replied, “Well you don’t understand life.”

It’s hard to ignore the weight that story brings because how many of us have done exactly what that teacher wanted. Ticked off the correct answers, pursued the respectable roles, told other people the ‘technical’ term of our position because it sounds better?

Lennon’s answer is a reminder that happiness isn’t something we stumble across after we achieve enough, earn enough, or become enough. It’s something we choose and cultivate along the way. It’s in the conversations we linger in, the work that feels meaningful, the connections we invest in.

And even though we aren’t children anymore, maybe that’s the shift we still need. To ask ourselves, “What would make me genuinely happy today?” Instead of “What do I want to be?”

It all comes down to this: Happiness was the assignment all along. Just the joy of being alive and being present in it. Lennon might’ve saw it at five years old, but the rest of us? Maybe today’s the day we can realize alongside him too.

Until next time,
Isaiah Taylor

Dive Deeper

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