At the beginning of a new year we are bombarded with content around making and achieving goals. But we’ve all made goals that we stopped pursuing fairly quickly because they weren’t the right goals, or because we didn’t set ourselves up for success.
I was surprised by this video from Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor and bestselling author, who says that, “Goals are a central ingredient in having a happier life.”
Huh?
Brooks starts by separating purpose from meaning, which many of us use interchangeably. He says, “Purpose is an element of meaning. It’s an answer to the questions: Why am I doing what I am doing? Where am I going with my life? What are my goals and direction in my life?”
We need to know if we are making progress in life, and that is where goals come in (if we are making the right ones).
If you don’t have goals, you may feel like you are just drifting from one thing to another. You may feel a lack of meaning. You may feel aimless. Brooks says not having goals “…basically eviscerates purpose, which means that you don’t have meaning. And if you don’t have meaning, you’re not going to have happiness.”
For Brooks, an academic focused on the study of happiness, this was a mic-drop moment.
And I have never thought about it that way.
So, if you have abandoned the goals you initially set for this year, you might want to revisit them. Confirm they are the right goals that will lead you toward an outcome you truly care about, and give yourself a do-over. (The Chinese New Year is right around the corner.)
Photo by Madison Oren on Unsplash
