Creating a Goal-Oriented Life

Over 20 years ago, i was drifting in my career, dissatisfied but I wasn't really sure where I wanted to go ... or what I needed to do to get there. I knew I wanted a change, but when I considered making that change, the scope and difficulty seemed overwhelming. Sometimes it's easier to measure our lives out in coffee spoons, as T. S. Eliot once wrote. A counselor I was seeing at the time suggested I set goals for myself for the next six months, the next year year, and the next five years, and periodically review and update my goals.

I decided to write out my goals. Most of my dissatisfaction centered around my current job, but there were other areas of my life that needed balancing: Spirituality, health, and relationships in particular. So I wrote down goals for those areas of my life, too. I found it easiest to think about five years from now, and develop long term goals in these life areas; then, I asked myself, what is doable in the next year? In the next six months? I placed the sheet with my goals in a back section of my DayTimer, and added a weekly "tickler" to work toward my short term goals. Each week, I determined I would do a little work toward the six month goals, and review my goal list every six months. Over the years, this simple discipline has helped me navigate several major life changes, including a radical career change.

It's worked reasonably well for me ... accountability has been a problem, however; if career coaching had been available at the time, engaging a career coach would have helped me stay focused on my goals and provided a framework of accountability to keep me motivated to do the work I needed to do to achieve my goals.

If you use DayTimer or DayRunner products, they come with suggestions for using these products in an optimal way to manage your time and your goals. Why not start work on your goals for the next year today?

The Roots of True Happiness

We sometimes say to ourselves or to those close to us, "If only X would happen, I'd be happy." But often X arrives, leaving us disappointed when true happiness continues to elude us. Positive psychologist Martin Seligman has been studying the sources of authentic happiness for years. His studies have shown that many of the aspects of life traditionally associated with happiness really have little long term impact on life satisfaction and true happiness; for example, climate, education, money, age, health, and negative events have little impact on happiness. Marriage, spiritual practices, and social life have a somewhat greater impact.

It turns out that our happiness is shaped primarily by the following three factors in our lives:
-- Satisfaction with the past, as shown by gratitude and forgiveness
-- Optimism about the future and hope about future outcomes
-- Contentedness in the present, experiencing meaning and purpose in life

These findings suggest that if we desire true happiness, we will seek to make peace with the past and appreciate what we have been given; work at looking forward to what is coming with excitement and hope rather than dread; and find contentedness and purpose in our present lives through the pursuit of meaning and purpose. A tall order? Perhaps ... but I think it's a journey worth pursuing.