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Setting
and Keeping Goals May
be Key to Happiness
NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) - People stuck on a downward spiral of unhappiness may
be able to alter their course by simply doing ''what you believe
in, what interests you, or both,'' two researchers from the University
of Missouri-Columbia suggest.
Setting goals
that fit with your personality--self-concordant goals--and resisting
the temptation to do something you feel you ought to, is key in
the pursuit of happiness, the authors report.
The idea that
people can make themselves permanently happier is controversial,
study author Dr. Kennon M. Sheldon told Reuters Health. For example,
some genetic theories propose that you can fluctuate up or down
from an inherited set-point of happiness but will always return
to that point, he explained.
``Our new
data suggest that this is not so. People can make themselves happier,
by doing very well at self-concordant goals,'' Sheldon said.
In two studies
involving undergraduate college students, Sheldon and co-author
Linda Houser-Marko found that students who set self-concordant
goals were more likely to achieve their goals and in doing so,
heighten their sense of well-being (i.e., happiness).
Goals listed
by the undergraduate students included getting good grades, getting
involved in campus organizations, and not gaining weight.
But few students
exhibited a further increase in well-being during the second phase
of the study, the authors note in the January issue of the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology.
``So, one
can't 'spiral upwards' indefinitely, but one can get oneself to
a higher level of happiness, and then keep oneself there, if one
selects appropriate goals and then continues to do well at them,''
Sheldon said.
Yet, the researcher
acknowledged the challenges involved in setting self-concordant
goals. ``We assume that it is a difficult skill to perceive yourself
well enough to know what is best for you to do--there are a lot
of things that get in the way of that.''
To combat
such interference, Sheldon offered the following advice: ``Stand
back and take stock and figure out what's really most important
to you and start going after that.''
He added,
``Stop wasting time doing what you think you're supposed to--that
can start this whole positive process.''
SOURCE:
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2001;80:152-165.
Reference
Source 89
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