Kovacevic 1

Husein
Professor Cottrill
Seminar
2 December 2014
How Creating Goals Effects Happiness
The biggest hindrance to my success throughout the years has been procrastination.
Stemming from Gretchen Rubins, The Happiness Project, I chose to create goals for two weeks
to help me regulate my everyday activities in an attempt to see how it affected my happiness.
Rubin created a happiness project that she followed for an entire year to see if she could change
her happiness level. During my happiness project, I created goals and smaller subgoals to help
organize everything from academic life to social life. I tracked how I felt each day and any alterations to my happiness as well as the happiness of the people around me.
I chose to focus on goal setting, because learning to create and follow goals is a significant skill a person will be able to use for their entire life. The skill of goal setting is especially
important during adolescence and transitional periods in life. In the article entitled Different
pathways, same effects: Autonomous goal regulation is associated with subjective well-being
during the post-school transition, Nurmi states that, goals are navigating tools that facilitate
a successful transition through late adolescence (Litalien 444). This reiterates the importance of
goal setting for individuals who seek to increase their happiness.
The type of goals that bring people happiness will vary among everyone. A goal that I
strive to achieve that will increase my level of happiness might not have the same effect on you,
and vice-versa, but that is expected. We are all unique individuals, but one thing that we have in
common is that we all have the ability to increase our happiness. An astounding fifty percent of

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the differences among peoples happiness levels can be accounted for by their genetically determined set points (Lyubomirsky 20). She further explains that ten percent is accounted for by life
circumstances. This leaves us with the ability to influence forty percent of our own happiness.
In Benjamin Caunts journal article, Exploring the Causes of Subjective Well-Being: A Content
Analysis of People Recipes for Long - Term Happiness, they also discuss how the happiness
set point is fifty percent, circumstances are ten percent, and intentional activities are forty percent (Caunt 478). With multiple studies showing the ability to increase our happiness by an
outstanding forty percent, its critical that we take advantage of it.
Lyumormisky quotes a statement from Australian psychiatrist named W. Beran Wolfe.
Wolfe stated that, If you observe a really happy man you will find hime building a boat, writing
a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur
eggs in the Gobi Desert (Lyumobrsky 205). The doctor was not implying that these are the
goals that will make you personally happy, but instead that everyone has something that they
strive for. This is why goal setting is unique, because we all have goals regardless of how abstract and different they might be. The most important fact is that goals help us regulate our
lives. Committed goal pursuit provides us a sense of purpose and a feeling of control over our
lives (Lyubomirsky 206). Without goals to keep us focused and on top of things, we would be in
limbo. We would constantly be lost on what to do. Many of us as well have aspirations and
plans for the future. Without such goals we would never be able to achieve this dreams.
Many people still question what happiness is. Happiness has been studied by great philosophers such as Aristotle and Democritus to modern day iconic figures such as the Dalai Lama
and Gandhi, but people still are not sure exactly it is. Democritus said, Happiness does not
dwell in flocks of cattle or in gold. Happiness, like unhappiness, is a property of the soul. And it

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is right that men should value the oil rather than the body; for perfection of soul corrects the inferiority of the body, but physical strength without intelligence does nothing to improve the mind.
Men find happiness neither by means of the body nor through possessions, but through uprightness and wisdom (Democritus). I believe in this, because this correlates back to the idea that
although you can amass gold, money, and property, but those circumstances will only last you a
short period of time. True happiness is a feeling much more valuable than tangible objects. Possessions come and go throughout the years, but having a connection with ones self lasts an eternity.
The purpose of my happiness was to see if creating goals and smaller sub goals would
alter my happiness or the happiness of others around me. To make progress toward your higher level goals, you must break them down into lower-level, concrete subgoals (Lyubomirsky 222).
This way I wouldnt feel overwhelmed with the notion of such an impossible task with such a
short amount of time to complete the goal. I decided to focus on goals, because balancing social
life and academics is one of the toughest out there. College life is notorious for challenging students sense of well being, demanding they manage competing academic and social goals as well
as their emotional reactions to both success and disappointment (Neely 88). The stress could
eventually led to academic burnout and possibly even dropping out.
During my happiness project I tracked the increase and decrease of my happiness through
an online website called Track Your Happiness. It would send me sporadic surveys to take
throughout the day to calculate my exact happiness level at that specific moment. The goals that
I set out for myself were not extreme, but they were effective. I set aside fifteen minutes each
night to study for exams and another thirty minutes for homework. I also made it a goal to set
aside a period of time for my family, friends, and then any leisure time I had for myself.

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The first step in increasing my happiness was to first figure out where my baseline was.
We completed two happiness surveys three times each over the span of about a month. One survey was on a scale that ranged from one to seven, while the other ranged from five to thirty five.
On the Satisfaction with Life Scale, created by Ed Diener, I scored a twenty eight. This determined that my baseline fell in the 26-30 category of satisfied. This is considered to be a high
score, which I could agree with, because most of the time I would consider myself happy. It
goes on to elaborate how people in this category are contempt but not complacent with their
lives. For most people in this high-scoring range, life is enjoyable, and the major domains of life
are going well - work or school, family, friends, leisure, and personal development (Diener).
Furthermore, twenty-eight is a step below the highest category of the extremely satisfied (31-35)
category. The scale that ranged from 1 - 7, I scored an average of 6, which equates to the previous survey. Both of these surveys showed me that I do have the potential to increase my happiness level.
Track Your Happiness was an easy way to track my happiness, because all you have to
do is complete a survey that they send you throughout the day. What makes it even easier is that
you can manually adjust the settings of when you want to receive surveys, when you dont want
to receive surveys, and how many surveys you want to receive a day. This is extremely convenient, because no one wants to be woken up at four in the morning to take a happiness survey.
After completing a set number of surveys, Track Your Happiness creates graphs to show your
when you are most happiest and where, on top of other factors.
Even though this was a happiness project, it did not mean that I was happy every single
day, and some of the surveys reflect on that. Most days I was happy, but we all have those days
every once in a while where we just feel annoyed and irritated by everything. On the days of

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when I wasnt feeling so happy, the last thing I wanted to do was a happiness survey. Truthfully,
I would go in and answer every question negatively regardless of the question. I would even
skip every goal I planned to do that day. This reflected on some days as the results looked funny, but I knew it was just one of those days. But with every bad day, ten happy ones arose. We
can start off with each Monday of each week as an example.
Monday for me is actually a productive and joyous day (as strange as that sounds). Im a
biology major, and all my bio classes landed on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so I would
actually enjoy looking forward to that. Each class period that day, with the exception of my first
class, lasted fifty minutes. I had an hour long break between classes which allowed me to finish
my goal of studying fifteen minutes for exams and thirty minutes of homework a day. I would
get home around 1:15 each day, so this allowed me time to enjoy two hours of leisure time for
myself (usually taking a nap). At around 4:30, I went to the gym, and Monday was always chest
day, which was my favorite muscle group to work. I would arrive home at around 6,which then
allowed me to enjoy time with my family for about an hour or so. By 8, I had already completed
all the goals I had set out for myself throughout the day. The last two to three hours could be
spent on pretty much anything I wanted, which ranged from hanging out with friends, playing
video games or doing some extra homework on the side.
Another instance was the final bio exam before the final. One of my biggest goals
throughout this project was to get an A on this exam, because I knew it would gave me confidence going into the final. I had studied for the exam for fifteen minutes each night, which does
not seem a lot, but it made a great deal of difference. By studying regularly, I avoided the before-night cramming session until 2 am. I didnt go into the exam frantic and jittery, because of
lost sleep the night before. I went in calm and relaxed. I ultimately ended up getting a 98 percent

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on the exam, which made everything worth it. The best thing was going home and showing my
mom. The happiness radiated from her more than it did from me. Seeing her so happy made me
happier myself. This feeling was a feeling of accomplishment. This coincides with Sheldons
study entitled, Persistent pursuit of need - satisfying goals leads to increased happiness: a 6month experimental longitudinal study, where they state, By making goals you can keep track
of the ones you achieve to give you a sense of fulfillment (Sheldon et. al 39-48).
Other days though were not as productive and efficient. I lacked the motivation and drive
towards the end of the happiness project, which really made me angry at myself. Motivation is
one of the key mechanism through which adolescents direct their development and select actions
and environments (Marttinen 263). The lack of motivation made me regress on all the progress
that I had been making throughout the entire happiness project. The closer and closer it seemed
break appeared, the less motivation I got. Ultimately, I began to slip into a rather dejected state.
I ended up not finishing the goals that I set up for myself. The lack of motivation came from the
anticipation of break, so I began to hold everything off towards the end hoping I could miraculously finish everything in a week. Although, I began to regress on my goal setting in the end, I
did feel the effectiveness of goal regulation.
I encourage anyone to try out happiness increasing technique, regardless if its goal setting
or another method. I was skeptical at first whether you could actually increase your happiness at
all. But after sticking to it, it becomes evident that it is possible. Its a great experiment, because
not only do you get to see an increase in your happiness, but you get to see an increase in happiness in the people around you.
People should be aware that before trying out a happiness project, not all methods will
have the same results for everyone. Its okay to not feel happier towards the end of this project.

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Its also alright to fail, as long as you get up and try again. You could attempt a different method
than the first one you attempted. Its also possible to lengthen the period of time or shorten the
period of time. This project should not be a difficult one, but instead one that you enjoy doing.
All in all, I learned a lot during my happiness project. Little things such as studying each
night can be good in the long run. One difference that I would change would be the fact that I
didnt know how to react when my goals escaped me. Once I let the one goal get away from me,
they all slowly started to follow. It is important for students to establish, juggle, and achieve
valuable, competing goals in their lives, as well as recover from disappointment when goals
elude them (Neely 88). This became evident in my case. After I let one goal slip away from me,
I felt as if the whole project was done for. I didnt know how to recover after not finishing my
goal. I let the constant feeling of disappoint overwhelm me that I began to give up on other
goals. There is a silver lining in this botched experiment of mine. It showed me ways on how to
improve next time and areas I need to be conscious about while creating goals. I was doing very
well in the first weeks of the experiment, I was completing everything on time and had a great
outlook on all the results. But, as soon as I heard the words Winter Break I began to lose that
motivation and drive need to finish my goals. The next time I replicate this experiment, I cant
get ahead of myself. I have to take each day one at a time.

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Work Cited

Caunt, Benjamin, et al. "Exploring The Causes Of Subjective Well-Being: A Content Analysis
Of Peoples' Recipes For Long-Term Happiness." Journal Of Happiness Studies 14.2
(2013): 475-499. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Democritus." Democritus. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Diener, Ed. "Understanding Scores on the Satisfaction with Life Scale." Ed Diener: Joseph R.
Smiley Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology. Senior Scientist for the Gallup
Organization. U of Illinois at Urbandale-Champaign. 13, Feb. 2006. PDF. 17 Nov. 2014.
Litalien, David, et al. "Different Pathways, Same Effects: Autonomous Goal Regulation Is Associated With Subjective Well-Being During The Post-School Transition." Motivation &
Emotion 37.3 (2013): 444-456. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Lyubomirsky, Sonja. The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want.
New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.
MARTTINEN, ELINA, and KATARIINA SALMELA-ARO. "Personal Goal Orientations And
Subjective Well-Being Of Adolescents." Japanese Psychological Research 54.3 (2012):
263-273. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Neely, Michelle, et al. "Self-Kindness When Facing Stress: The Role Of Self-Compassion, Goal
Regulation, And Support In College Students Well-Being." Motivation & Emotion 33.1
(2009): 88-97. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Sheldon, Kennon M., et al. "Persistent Pursuit Of Need-Satisfying Goals Leads To Increased
Happiness: A 6-Month Experimental Longitudinal Study." Motivation & Emotion 34.1
(2010): 39-48. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.