Can Adding This Element to Your Goals Make You Happier and More Successful? Science Says Yes

Pursuing a goal with meaning? That’s the key to greater happiness and a greater likelihood of success.

EXPERT OPINION BY JEFF HADEN @JEFF_HADEN

Achieving a goal can make you happier, but so can simply pursuing a goal. As David Niven writes in 100 Simple Secrets of the Best Half of Life, “People who could identify a goal they were pursuing were 19 percent more likely to feel satisfied with their lives, and 26 percent more likely to feel positive about themselves.”

As long as it’s the right type of goal.

According to a meta-analysis of more than 100 studies published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, pursuing extrinsic goals related to image, fame, and money is linked with feelings of ill-being. (The researchers call it the “dark side of the American dream.”)

On the flip side, pursuing intrinsic goals related

On the flip side, pursuing intrinsic goals related to personal development, relationships, community, and health are linked with feelings of well-being.

Refreshed leadership advice from CEO Stephanie Mehta

An Inc.com Featured Presentation

Trying to do good, for yourself or others, makes you feel good. Why? According to the researchers:

• Intrinsic goals tend to satisfy basic psychological needs like growth, independence, and connection. (For example, other research shows feeling good about the impact you make on others makes you feel good about yourself.)
• Extrinsic goals satisfy external validation goals (“satisfy” because external validation is only occasionally fulfilling, and rarely lasting) and tend to lead to anxiety, insecurity, and even depression.

In part, that’s because of the nature of the comparisons involved. Learn and grow, and the comparison you make is between the person you used to be and the person you’ve become. On the extrinsic side, comparisons tend to be outward, not inward — and there will always be someone smarter, wealthier, more accomplished…

Makes sense. But what if you want to be happier and more fulfilled, and also accomplish extrinsic goals?

Source: www.inc.com