Life Goal for Happiness

Lots of in person

Mere presence of many important personal goals is related with high life satisfaction

Goal characters related with SWB

match vs. conflict
content itself of goal
process versus outcome and others
Joy in process

Then what is your goal

- Write down it

Success/Failure of achieving

Need to consider, but not much important in process

Vertical coherence of goals - match vs. conflict

Structure Coherence at various levels

Between Goals

within level (horizontal)
b/w lower vs. higher level (vertical)

Between personal resource & goa

Between goals & environment (refer Kasser’s prison study)

One makes other goal make easier versus. no coherence → regret

Goal Framing - important attitude

“avoidance” goals - not get criticized, not appear dumb

“approach” goals - try something new, learn as much as possible

second one is more closer to happiness - *a very stable, significant difference

The safest boat is one that never leaves the dock. The next safest boat is one who know when to sail and when not to and where to sail and where not to And that is well-equipped and well taken care of.

Focus of Goal Pursuit - Process versus Outcome

“Linking” - extent to which a person believes that their happiness is dependent upon obtaining certain kinds of outcomes

High Linkers - “I can be happy if and only X happens…” - even minor negative events seen as threats to higher order goals (happiness)

High linkers ruminate more and experience more depression - like over justify

Joy is in the process

the activity should be engaged for intrinsic reasons (fun, enjoyment, interest), not merely as a means for another purpose (refer "wait")

intrinsic motivation - desire to engage in an activity because we enjoy it or find it interesting - ex. "Flow"

extrinsic motivation - desire to engage in an activity because of external rewards or pressures

Flow loss of self-consciousness(time flies) and give lot pleasure after flow

Flow - Autotelic experience by high skill and challenge auto = itself, telos= goal

Achievement: A ‘by-product’ of joyful engagement not a object - Happiness is NOT about reaching a destination, process

Over-justification

Occurs when incentives are used to bring out behavior without any external reward

When overly rewarded, interest dies

"the game lost its magical qualities for me once I thought seriously about playing for a living" - NBA legend, Bill Russell

Summary

minimize conflicts

choose goals that maximize your talents, interests, and match your skill level - to Flow

focus more on the PROCESS, less on the outcome "focus on BEING X, not on BECOMING X"

"Changing time is tremendously shorter than life after change and process before change"