Why goals are important: Happiness!

This year we rode an elephant!

Welcome 2012! The Internet is awash with New Year’s resolution articles, blog posts, facebook status updates and videos. MSN.com has already published articles on better jobs and weight loss, as well as, the obligatory articles recapping the best and worst celebrities, weather, sports and news in 2011. Gazing towards the blank slate of a new year everyone seems to take inventory of their best and worst moments of past year and make new, revised goals for the year ahead.

Retrospect: 
As I started to look back over my last year I decided to focus on the positive. It is too easy to see the failures or struggles of a past year and I have learned in happiness practices to remember the good and to remember it vividly. A couple friends of mine requested this in their status updates on facebook. What a truly inspirational concept.

The Maffeoberries Highlights:
This year I took to researching positive psychology, I began meditation and yoga.  I promised myself a certain amount of writing practice, which, between the blog and school I have accomplished (though I am no closer to a book). My family and I traveled - we decided to explore the Midwest. We had an amazing summer in the Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota.  We visited Wall Drug a destination in the Midwest worth dropping in on. We spent multiple weekends in Omaha Nebraska checking out the zoo and the city. We went to Minneapolis Minnesota for a spectacular renaissance faire, the Mall of America, which has an indooramusement park, and for my girls an American Girl doll shop.  We discovered the joy of hotel suites, hotel pools and vacationing as a family.  The unexpected highlights of our large scale move has been meeting new people, lightning in the clouds/thunder storms, playing with lightning bugs (the girls love that!)  And we learned that buying Sam’s Club packages of sparklers; although legal, is not a great idea.  Around home we got to know a very active community with Rib festivals, Jazz festivals, waterparks, concerts, Falls Park and winter parades with Santa Claus.  The kids had summer school with a favorite teacher, museum camps, pet shelter camp, puppet shows, library time, tons of swimming and some California time with great family and friends.  We stayed in a San Diego hotel on the water and I personally will never forget how great that was, being so close to the ocean and sun.  In fact, when I list off the amazing things we did this year, knowing that I am leaving out great accomplishments (like, oh I don’t know) I got a job! I found that 2011 is a ton of amazing memories I love looking back on.

Moving forward: 
However, we cannot live, even in the great memories, of the past.  We have to keep moving forward.  (For those who meditate – we have to live in the present).  In the New Year we all sit down to make our goals, as we think of our future.  According to Sonja Lyubomirsky, one of my favorite positive psychology authors, goals are one great step towards happiness. "People who strive for something personally significant, whether it's learning a new craft, changing careers, or raising moral children, are far happier than those who don't have strong dreams or aspirations. Find a happy person, and you will find a project" ( 205, The How of Happiness).

 Lyubomirsky states that working towards a goal is as important as attaining a goal. The type of goal can be on a large scale, such as career goals (climbing the corporate ladder, switching careers, graduate school), family goals (like having a baby, moving to a new city) or it can be as small a scale as taking a class, starting a new hobby. The goal can be political, social, familial or spiritual as long as it provides a challenge and is meaningful to the individual it will increase happiness.

 “Working towards a meaningful life goal is one of the most important strategies for becoming lastingly happier” (206, The How of Happiness).

 In light of this wonderful information I hope everyone makes themselves some challenging and healthy goals for 2012 and increases their personal happiness! 

For the blog in the new year:
I plan to continue to blog on bullying (it is a large topic and I will take it in pieces, over time), I will continue with blog posts on happiness/positive psychology (for those who, like me, want mind/body wellness), I will continue to write out family stories and I will continue to build my online gluten free recipe book (I use this when I am traveling and it might be helpful for some gluten free families).

Have a Happy New Year!