Goal: Be Happy.  Is it really possible to make “Be Happy” a goal?  If so, how?  I do think you can set happiness as a goal, just as if you would set a goal to attain any other worthwhile goal.  To be fair though, the actual process of setting that goal may not be as easy as say, losing 10 pounds or running a 5k race.  Before we begin the goal setting process, let’s explore some definitions and schools of thought on both happiness and goal setting. 

Both Wikipedia and Merriam-Webster Dictionary broadly define Happiness as a state of mind or feeling such as contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. 

Wikipedia defines Goal Setting as long-term vision with short-term motivation.  It focuses intention, desire, acquisition of knowledge, and helps to organize resources.  Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a goal as the end toward which effort is directed. 

Since happiness is a state of mind and the mind is ever changing, adapting and evolving according to our life experiences – so is our state of happiness.  It is important to be clear that achieving and sustaining a constant state of happiness is all but impossible.

So, how can you set a goal to achieve something that is nearly impossible to reach? Well, you can start by setting a goal to achieve a higher baseline level of happiness than where you are today.  According to research done by University of Minnesota, about 50% of one’s satisfaction with life comes from genetic programming or your genetic make-up.  That means that your natural disposition to view the glass as half-full or half-empty is largely dependent on your genes.   In working with depressed patients, Dr. Aaron T. Beck, President of the non-profit Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, and University Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, found that those who are depressed experienced what he calls “automatic thoughts.”  He discovered that these thoughts seemed to pop up spontaneously and the thought content fell into three categories: negative ideas about themselves, the world and the future.  Dr. Beck began helping patients identify and evaluate their thoughts and found that by doing so, patients were able to think more realistically, which led them to feel better emotionally and behave more functionally. The trick is to catch yourself having the thought, identify it as negative and then learn to change your distorted thinking to thinking that is more realistic. This requires consistency and a behavioral change.

This means that if your happiness baseline is naturally low, you can make it a goal to improve your disposition.  It will take effort.  If you are one of the lucky ones born with the glass half-full perspective, then you too can set a goal to enhance your level of happiness.  You may be able to take it to a new level and set a goal to help others be happy.  In either case, goals you are truly committed to achieving and you believe you can attain will be the goals you most likely will achieve.  There is a catch – and that catch is that you must then do a minimum amount of work to maintain your new level of happiness.   To continue to grow and improve you may also need to set new goals for yourself. 

If you decide you want to set happiness as a goal, you need to define what success will look like once you have achieved your goal.  This will require you to start with defining what your new level of happiness will look and feel like to you.  Because we are all unique individuals, the feeling of happiness is different and distinctive to every person.  That which brings joy or pleasure to one person may absolutely repulse another.  Unless you have a clear vision of what you want, you will not achieve it.  Since happiness is a state of mind, defining it may be the most difficult part of setting this goal.  Some small examples of feeling happy may be that you find you have a more positive outlook on things or the ability to find the good in a situation even when others cannot.  You may also find that you have a little pep in your step and more energy throughout the day.  Being more engaged in what you do and finding ways to make your life feel more meaningful are other ways of finding an increased level of happiness.  To help you with this exercise, you can also draw upon previous times or moments in your life where you could say, “I am happy” and then write down what about that experience made you feel that way.

Setting and achieving the goal:

If your overarching goal is to be happy – and you have defined what happy looks and feels like for you, then it is now time to bring it to life just as you would any other goals you set out to achieve.  Here are six steps to help you get started on attaining happiness:

1.      Write down your goal ‘as if’ you have already achieved it – This may require some creative writing skills, but the idea here is to write down how you will feel once you have achieved the goal.  Example:  I am proud of myself for the ability to remain positive and happy even when things around me are challenging.

2.      Add it to your daily task (to-do) list – Recommit to your goal every day.   You will find that your focus and efforts will become habitual over time and may not require the level of effort you have to put forth in the beginning.

3.      Find ways to get more pleasure out of life – Do things that make you happy.  If music makes you happy, listen to your favorite tunes daily.  If your dog makes you happy, take time each day to play, snuggle or otherwise interact with your dog.  If volunteer work makes you happy, find a cause you feel passionate about and schedule time to get involved.  Whatever it is that brings you moments of joy – do it daily.

4.      Post your goal where you can see it – Read it several times a day.  Make it a priority and a habit.

5.      Visualize it – Even reading the words happy, smile, and fun or seeing pictures of people smiling and doing things you associate with fun will immediately elevate your mood.  If you have not created your  vision board yet, now may be the time and make sure you incorporate happiness into your vision.

6.      Review and evaluate your commitment to your overarching goal regularly - Remember, your goal needs to energize you.  It needs to excite you.  You will not put the work in to do something in which you are not personally invested.  Goal setting requires motivation and personal investment into the achievement of the goal.  Ask yourself if you are you committed, excited, and energized by your goal?  If the goal is worthwhile, you will find a way to achieve it.

People who set goals are more likely to succeed than people who do not.  Therefore, I believe that if you find yourself in a place in life where you desire a higher level of happiness, what better way to get there than by starting with a goal.  You deserve happiness – you are worthy of happiness.

To achieve happiness, we should make certain that we are never without an important goal.
- Earl Nightingale

Ask a person what they most want in life and most people will say, “To be happy.” Ask a person what it will take them to reach happiness and you will probably be met with a blank stare or a quick reply of a list of things or possessions. It is common to think a brand new sports car, a house in the right neighborhood, or a Swiss made designer watch will be the thing that finally brings us happiness and yet as many people who have achieved those things know, you do not attain long-term happiness with what you have. The fact is that most people experience an increased level of stress as their material possessions or assets increase, thereby decreasing their overall level of true and lasting happiness. In order to realize a lasting state of happiness and contentment we need to dig deeper into our own personal core value system to discover what matters to us on a fundamental level and then work from there.
Discovering your core values – sounds easy, right? Let’s try something right now. Take out a piece of paper and write down your top ten core values. Remember that core values are those things that you feel are important to you, but are not material in nature. An example of a value is Family. The value is Family and to live according to that value you would spend more time with your kids. Take about five minutes to come up with your top ten – Go!
How did you do? For some this might have been a little bit of a stretch. It is common for us to focus on the things we want to have and confuse those with what we value most. The point is that many people do not really know what they truly value in life and there is a tremendous amount of confusion going on in the world about the difference between values and valuables. Values are internal and valuables are external. Happiness comes from inside (internal).
Once you have a solid list of your values, it is important to decide how you need to live in order to honor and respect your values. Using another example, if Health is one of your top values then you need to make nourishing food choices and incorporate exercise into your daily life to live in accordance with that value. We make hundreds of decisions a day and each time we decide to live in alignment with our values we also increase our potential for a higher level of happiness. Think of it sort-of like the scales of justice – you know the kind of scale with two sides. Think of one side as your happiness plane and the other side as your values plane. The more you add to your values side the higher your happiness side will rise. As you go through your daily life, consider how your decisions affect your happiness scale. Add to your values side and watch your happiness side increase. Act in contradiction with your values and your happiness will diminish. It is a simple concept, but the work is in determining your values and choosing to live every day with your values as your top priority.
You will see that as you continue to live with your values as top-of-mind you will feel more fulfilled and less focused on superficial trappings. Be proud of yourself for doing the work and being true yourself and watch your happiness soar!

Last night I went to a friends house for a jewelry party. I could stop right there and you can imagine it was a happy event for me – friends and jewelry are a perfect combo! Anyway – getting back to the point… While visiting with new friends the topic of the conversation moved into all the different challenges in our lives today. I quickly told everyone about The World Needs More Happy website and the best thing happened – the whole conversation changed to laughs and giggles and one person even said she got chills! It was so rewarding to share this site with my new friends and see how good it made others feel just in knowing there is a happy place out there for them to visit, interact with and meet others.

I’m very grateful for all of the wonderful things that have happened that have allowed me to take an idea into a reality in such a short time – 3 weeks tomorrow! I am blessed and grateful!

Have a More Happy Day!