MAKING PROGRESS IN LIFE WILL MAKE YOU HAPPIER

MAKING PROGRESS IN LIFE WILL MAKE YOU HAPPIER

As human beings we thrive on achieving goals. We get a nice little hit of dopamine, the happiness hormone, when we achieve something. time and time again that we are at our happiest when we are improving.

 when we’re not making progress, it can be difficult to feel happy. When we notice we’re not making progress it can zap our energy and confidence and life can become a frustrating cycle of inactivity and stagnation. One reason we stop making goals for ourselves and stop progressing in life is the belief that we should accept who we are and not constantly strive to improve ourselves.

A key tool for creating goal setting and progressing, is using our imagination.  Yet as is so often the case, by the time we’ve reached mid life, we’ve stopped dreaming about what we want to achieve and feel quite negatively about goal setting. Instead of feeling confidence, happiness and satisfaction from achieving our goals, we feel we are always falling short. That leads to disappointment and we stop dreaming

Some adults try not to engage in make-believe anymore because they think it’s childish, but we ever really outgrow it. In fact, that make-believe is the basis for all our motivations in life.”

The gap and the gain

The problem with finding yourself disgruntled for not hitting the mark, is because the mark always changes and we’re always adapting,we end up feeling like we’re never going to reach our goals. And herein lies one of the biggest misconceptions and reasons for failure, dissatisfaction and unhappiness. We measure against the goal, 

 We measure always against the gap (the goal, which we never feel we’re reaching) rather than the gain (where we’ve come from). In measuring where we’ve come from, rather than where we’re trying to get to, we see results

Tips for a happier life

Take time out to imagine the life you’d like to have, the dreams you want to come true, the things you want in life. Try and find time alone to dream, vision, think big. You can read more about this in the link at the bottom of this article.

Find and make the time to use play and imagination– see the Ted Talk link below. Successful people see play as the key to creativity and realisation. Using your imagination is a key learning skill. This may not come naturally to you at first. Like most things, it’s a skill you need to practice. Question everything, don’t take anything as a given. Begin challenging the status quo. Play make believe and believe anything is possible

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Your goals need to be easy to measure, not wishy-washy. You cannot easily measure them if they are vague, so be very clear on what they are

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Regularly celebrate the gap and the gain. The only way you can do this is to write down and track your success. Look back at how far you’ve come (I find it useful to do this weekly, but monthly is ok too) and celebrate what you’ve achieved. DO NOT look ahead at how far you’ve got to go as this will only lead to dissatisfaction

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Be grateful to all those who have helped you along the way, including yourself. This is very powerful and very important. Do this daily; it will change your life. Gratitude has been called the mother of all virtue, so don’t underestimate the power of this simple act.

Don’t be put off if the ‘event’ (goal) is not as great as you imagined it would be. You’ve adapted along the way, so this is perfectly normal. In imagining it, you’ve already had a great deal of benefit out of the process, which is great and serve to drive us forwards.

Place high value on what you want to achieve. This will help a great deal in achieving them.

Believe you can achieve whatever you set your mind to and adopt the behaviours required to do them which includes being in the right environments with the right people to support you in achieving them.