Setting goals that will lead to more success is a major challenge in the pursuit of happiness. Many people set goals that cannot be met because they involve trying to get someone else to change. If the other person wants to change, well and good. If not, failure is inevitable.

The most successful goals are those which involve changing oneself. In self change, specific goals need to be established, then evaluated to see if they are practical and achievable. If not practical and achievable, the goals must be revised until they meet these criteria.

It is also important that progress moving toward a goal can be measured. If, for example, someone wants to cut down on smoking, it is necessary to state the goal in numbers: “I want to go from twenty cigarettes a day to five.” If that person is courageous enough to cut back this much, he then will need to decide if he is willing to forfeit the five. It’s not easy to break addictions. Sometimes a contract to improve one’s life in some small way seems easier.

When goals are overly optimistic or impossible to reach or are not revised (the fate of many New Year’s resolutions), they are not achieved. When resolutions are not kept, then previous beliefs about being inadequate or not being able to trust oneself are likely to be recycled. They get replayed like a badly scratched 78-rpm record that you listen to because it’s familiar in spite of the poor sound quality.

Goals with the potential of success are those that are reasonable and practical and within a person’s power to achieve. When the goals are achieved, the taste of success is sweet, the sound is grand, and the result is, at least, a moment of happiness.

Some people know their goals. They know exactly what they want. Others are not so sure. They just know they want to be happy. Pinpointing the area of life that is not satisfying often leads to the ability to focus on specific goals for improvement. So, the question is, “What do you want to enhance your life?”

Note, the question is not just “What do you want?” What we want may be bad for us or others. It may give us only momentary pleasure or be damaging to our lives instead of enhancing them. Thus, we must be able to recognize wants that are positive, constructive, and healthy. So, my question for goal setting really is, “What do you want that will change your life for the better?”

Related posts:

1. Cycling Training Tips – Goal Setting and Motivation

2. S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting For Fitness

3. The basics of the key to happiness – design specific goals to achieve

4. The basics of how your energy and motivation will determine your goal-achieving ability

5. The basics of showing your success when you are happy

6. The basics of knowing your possibility of own sabotage on the road to happiness

7. Setting Running Goals – Splitting Larger Goals into Building Blocks

8. The basics of the power of wisdom in the road to pursuing happiness

9. The basics of self-contracting for happiness – contracting theory

10. The Importance of Having Another Goal after a Marathon