As we get closer to the end of another year and the beginning of a new year, we all tend to set ourselves goals for the forthcoming year. It is interesting that research shows that happiness is strongly linked to success. So it goes to say that once successful you will become happy and content.
Everyone though has a different measure for success so it is important to find what your measure of success is. This will obviously vary from person to person. A good way to start is to write “Your Life Sentence”. That is, the way you would like to be remembered by those that you care dearly for. Let’s say in ten years you revisit your life sentence and if the answer is not what it should be, begin to think about what you could do to change it.
These will become your goals. Remember it is important to have goals because “if you don’t know where you are heading you will end up somewhere else.” And that could be somewhere that you definitely do not want to be.
To make the goals attainable, break them down into achievable goals. I recall assisting in a seminar here at GTP some years ago and Chris Foster explaining this exceptionally well. Chris was restoring a car and was initially in awe of all that he would need to do. So he broke it down into smaller parts. And then he began with one thing at a time. If he did not know how to do something he went off and did a course on it. It took some time but Chris achieved his goal and restored the car.
It is also important to write your goals down. Research has shown that those who had written goals were 70% more likely to achieve them than those that did not. Even more powerful is to have joint goals. My wife Caroline and I often discuss our future goals together and this continually reinforces them. This makes the achievement of the goal in my mind even stronger.
There is a saying that if you don’t aim for anything that you will hit it with amazing accuracy. So make the effort to achieve success for your happiness.
