Happiness, Success and Goal Setting

The phrase “Goals are the key to success, not happiness” from a post on the blog “Idea Garden” caught my eye. This started me thinking, we all have started setting our goals for 2006, I this process we need to understand that there is a difference between success and happiness. These two issues are closely related in our culture and thinking, usually we end up thinking “If I had more money I would be happy” or “If I find the right person or job I will be happy”. In thinking this way we end up confusing success with happiness. Looking at success and what it means I’ve found the way Curt Rosengren from The Occupational Adventure describes success useful. Curt describes success as:

• Career passion – I want to be energized by the work I do. I want to feel engaged and compelled to do it. I want to feel alive in the activity that takes up the majority of my waking hours…..that feeling of passion for what I do is in turn fuel for more success.
• Financial abundance – “It simply means a feeling of having “enough,” ensuring that my energy isn’t drained by the anxiety of needing more.”
• Time abundance – “to have time to live the full scope of my life in 360 degrees, not just work.”
• Love – “to be around people for whom love, care, and respect is a standard way of interacting.”
• Health – “health really is a strategic resource. The healthier I am, the better I treat my body, the more energy I have to put into whatever I do – work or play…..How is my diet? How is my exercise? How about time to relax and center?”
• Being present – “I know getting caught up in “something else” at the expense of the here and now happens to me more than I would like to admit. Whether that is because of a focus on something I’m trying to do, anxiety about something that will or won’t happen, or just an overload-induced feeling of scatteredness, that obsession with “something else” robs me of the opportunity to fully experience life.”
• Meaning – “meaning comes from making a substantial positive impact on people’s lives”

So this gives us a good idea what success looks like. What about happiness will having the success ensure that we become happy? Let’s look at some research on happiness. An article in “Psychological Science” entitled “Who is Happy?” by David G. Myers’ and Ed Diener provides an interesting summary of research conducted into happiness which includes: The Traits of Happy People

• Self-Esteem: “happy people like themselves. On tests of self-esteem, they agree with such statements as ‘I’m a lot of fun to be with’ and ‘I have good ideas.’ Indeed, happy people often exhibit a self-serving bias by believing themselves more ethical, more intelligent, less prejudiced, better able to get along with others, and healthier than average.”
• Personal Control: “happy people typically feel personal control. Those who feel empowered rather than helpless typically do better in school, cope better with stress, and live more happily.”
• Optimistic: “happy people are usually optimistic. Optimists-those who agree, for example, that ‘when I undertake something new, I expect to succeed’–tend to be more successful, healthier, and happier than are pessimists”
• Extraverts: “happy people tend to be extraverted. Compared with introverts, extroverts are happier both when alone and with other people, whether they live alone or with others, whether they live in rural or metropolitan areas, and whether they work in solitary or social occupations.”

The Relationships of Happy People – “People who can name several intimate friends with whom they share their intimate concerns freely are healthier, less likely to die prematurely, and happier than people who have few or no such friends.” “It seems that happiness is the key to success NOT goal setting!The “Flow” of Happy People – “For many people, work provides personal identity: It helps people define who they are. Work also adds to a sense of community: It offers people a network of supportive relationships and a ‘we feeling.’ This sense of pride and belonging to a group helps people construct their social identity. And work can add focus and purpose–a sense that one’s life matters…..Work is, however, sometimes unsatisfying, for two reasons. We can be overwhelmed: When challenges exceed our available time and skills, we feel anxious, stressed. Or we can be underwhelmed: When challenges do not engage our time and skills, we feel bored. Between anxiety and boredom lies a middle ground where challenges engage and match skills. In this zone, we enter an optimal state that Csikszentmihalyi (1990) termed “flow”…..Csikszentmihalyi conducted studies in which people reported on their activities and feelings when paged with electronic beepers. He discovered that happiness comes not from mindless passivity but from engagement in mindful challenge. Whether at work or at leisure, people enjoyed themselves more when absorbed in the flow of an activity than when doing nothing meaningful.” The Faith of Happy People – “The links between religion and mental health are impressive…..Across North America and Europe, religious people also report higher levels of happiness and satisfaction with life. Religious people are slightly less vulnerable to depression . The most striking finding, however, comes from the Gallup Organization, which compared people low in “spiritual commitment” with highly spiritual people (who consistently agree with statements such as “My religious faith is the most important influence in my life.”). The highly spiritual were twice as likely to say they were “very happy.” Other surveys, in the United States, and across 14 Western nations, found that happiness and life satisfaction rise with strength of religious affiliation and frequency of worship attendance.” In recent research the link between happiness and success was investigated by a team from the University of California Riverside, led by Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky, this research seems to provide a link between these two seemingly contradictory concepts. An article from The Guardian, entitled “The Recipe for Success” summaries the research stating that:

“‘There was strong evidence that happiness leads people to be more sociable and more generous, more productive at work, to make more money, and to have stronger immune systems,’ said Prof Lyubomirsky…..The research shows that while success can put a spring in someone’s step, people need happiness in the first place to achieve success.”

It seems then that happiness is the key to success NOT goal setting! Technorati Tags: Goal Setting, Personal Leadership, Personal Development, Leadership, Happiness, Success

Related posts:

1. 10 steps to happiness
2. When goal-setting backfires
3. Study Reveals Where Americans Fail at Setting, Achieving New Year’s Goals
4. Goal setting at Google
5. Have you defined what success means for you?

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