Goal Setting, Action Plans and Happiness

This topic has been dealt with in numerous self-help books and textbooks. Essentially this topic comes down to identifying what you are wanting in life (i.e., goals etc) and identifying how to reach them. Along with living your life with gratitude and happiness. Below are a number of tips and techniques to help you to identify what you want in life and how to generally improve your levels of gratitude and happiness:

1. Identify what your 3 or 4 important/ salient values are in life. Values may include; importance of friends/ family, being creative, career/ finances, thinking outside the "square" or doing your own thing. Then living your life in accordance with these values.

2. Identify 2 or 3 important life areas that you are wanting to focus on in the next 6 - 12 months. For example; work, family, friends, finances, career, romance, health and fitness. Remember that you can't focus on them all at once, so you need to prioritise and pick 2 or 3.

3. Set 3 medium term goals, based around the 2-3 life areas that are important to you right now. Ensue that your goals are SMARTER. That is (S)pecific, (M)easurable, (A)ttractive?, (R)ealistic, (T)ime framed, (E)cological, (R)eason. What are the specifics of the goal? How are you going to measure your achievement of the goal? How attractive is the goal? How realistic is the goal? By when do you want to achieve the goal? Who in your environment (e..g, friends/ family) is going to help/ hinder your progress towards the goal? Why do you want to achieve this goal? Remember to write the goals down and review them regularly.

4. Set weekly action plans that will help to propel you towards your goals.

5. Remember to review your progress regularly. Do this either weekly or monthly. You may find that you will need to adjust your goals or create new ones. This is ok and part of the process.

6. To improve your happiness, before going to bed at nighttime, think of 3 positive things that happened to you that day.

7. To improve motivation towards achieving your goals you may want to think about making your goals public. One way of doing this is to tell 2 or 3 of your closest friends and family about your goal and/ or to have a sponsor who you check in regularly with. Someone who will keep you on track with your goal(s).

8. An important part of the process is renewal of your energies. Every 10-12 weeks it is recommended that you have a mental health day. This is a day which you devote to you. For example, you may want to go to a day spa, watch a movie, go to the beach. It is also very important that you take regular holidays. They should be taken every 15 months or so for at least 1 week.

9. Celebrate your wins. It is very important that you have milestones, which you celebrate on the path towards your longer-term goals. It is very important that you enjoy both the process and the outcome.

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