We used to think that happiness is based on succeeding at our goals, but it turns out not so much.
Most marathon runners, for example — not professionals but the amateur runners — their high for completing the marathon usually disappears even before their nipples stop bleeding.
My point is that the high lasts for a very short amount of time. If you track where people's happiness and satisfaction is, it is in "getting" or in making progress towards our goals. It's a more satisfying, life-affirming, motivating and happy thing than actually reaching them.
So it's a great thing to keep in mind... Health, for example. When you define health as something you want to do, living your life and looking back on the week and saying "That was a healthy week for me: I worked out this number of times, I did this amount of push-ups, I ate reasonably most of the time..." that's very satisfying and that's where you'll feel happy about yourself. And if you're too focused on a scale for some reason, then that's an external thing that you'll hit... and then what?
So it is about creating goals that are longer lasting and really focusing on the journey because that's really where we get our happiness and our satisfaction. Once it's achieved... now what?
January 1st 2015