Will achieving your goals make you happier?

Something I hear a lot is “It’s superficial to set goals. You won’t be any happier with a fancy car or house or when you lose weight, so why try?”

Nah uh, honey! It’s true that your capacity for happiness isn’t going to increase when you reach a specific goal. You won’t suddenly have the ability to feel better when you have a new house. Your capacity for happiness is already at its peak.

You also won’t necessarily feel happier just by having achieved something or owning something new.

However, an essential ingredient for happiness is growth (according to theories in positive psychology), and goals give you the opportunity to grow, and therefore be happy along the way.

You won’t be happier THERE than you are HERE. But because having goals forces you to grow, working towards goals will make you happier NOW.

That means setting a THERE and working towards it is essential to being happy NOW.

Short version: The pursuit of the goal will make you happier, not the achievement of the goal.