How To Make Sure Reaching Your Goals Makes You Happy

What can you do if you've established what you want, made plans to achieve it, worked heard and succeeded in achieving everything you ever hoped for, only to find yourself wondering – is that all there is?

If for example, you wanted to be a millionaire and reached that goal. One good reason for possibly feeling somewhat deflated is that people change. The great Jim Rohn made a very profound observation about this very subject – that the person you become in pursuit of a goal is much more important than reaching the goal itself. The skills and you have to learn, the obstacles you have to overcome, the character traits you have to develop and so on are what really matters.

We become different people as we work towards and achieve our goals. Whilst it's important to have goals it's also important not be dogmatic about them, we need to be able to change and adapt them as we go along, If you aren't getting the results you want, perhaps there's something wrong with your approach or your plans and you need to alter them. In some case it may be necessary to start all over again. This isn't being defeated, this is realising that changes were needed. You can still maintain the same ultimate goals, this is just taking a different route to get there.

Even when things are going well, it may still need necessary to adapt. As we develop as people our priorities change and the things that were once of great importance become less so. This is natural.

For example, the things that were most important when we are single become less important when we enter serious relationships, and change again as we become parents.

Regularly reviewing our goals and values should stop us from getting to a certain point and feeling let down. Much of this happens automatically anyway, but if we actively think about it will make it even easier.

Self improvement and continuous personal growth is one of the basic human needs. In Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs this is actually the highest level of human need, the desire to grow and develop, not to stand still and remain complacent or self satisfied, or as some would say, to get stuck in a rut.

There's also another level that was later added to Maslow's hierarchy – the need to contribute, to give something back and to make a difference in some way, or to make some sort of spiritual connection. Many believe this is where true happiness is to be found, although few people take this course because they are seeking happiness.

This isn't even a choice for many people; more like it chooses them, or they feel drawn to it. This is the need that has driven people like Mother Teresa, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, even Bob Geldof to name but a few well known examples.

This is also the need that drove Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world and the man who was ultimately responsible for Napoleon Hill writing Think and Grow Rich, the book that started the modern personal development industry. Carnegie gave away most of his vast fortune, funding and establishing countless libraries, schools, universities and other institutions which continue to educate and help millions of people worldwide today.

This was philanthropy on the grandest scale that few can replicate, but many people feel driven to contribute to worthwhile causes as they become better off financially. Cynics may think that many well off people only give to charity to avoid paying tax or for similar reasons, but this certainly isn't always the case.

There are many, many genuinely philanthropic wealthy people. Some will have always been that way inclined, and some will become more committed to helping others as they become wealthier, perhaps due to gratitude and wanting to give something back, or the genuine desire to make a contribution to others.

Making a contribution is certainly not only for the wealthy. Absolutely anyone can help others, if not financially, by committing time. Millions of people of modest means do so, and not only do they help to make the world a better place, but they have richer lives as a result.

If you've reached all your goals and you still don't feel satisfied, it's possibly because you haven't adapted and updated your goals to suit the person you've become in achieving them, or haven't thought about your next challenges. Or perhaps what you're really looking for now is a higher purpose that you may not have yet been able to define.