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The Three Steps to Happiness All Successful People Know

Experts say that we spend the majority of our lives at work. So our career and life are very closely intertwined.  Sadly, many people are unhappy, unfulfilled and feel like they may even be in the wrong field, position or company!  That’s no way to live!

 

Regardless of whether you are currently working in a career field, have yet to graduate, or are looking to make a change, there are several steps to follow to enhance your fulfillment in life and career.

 

Step One: Discover your Direction.  You must first identify your core values and let them guide you in your decisions.  Core values are those defining principles that guide your life. They are your “non-negotiables”.  They are those qualities that will be etched on your tombstone and whispered at your funeral!  By defining these first, we can use them as a measuring stick for the rest of our life choices when we are planning to “take the next step.”

 

For example, if “Spending Time with Family” is a core value, yet you choose a career field and job that will have you working crazy hours so that you are rarely available to have family dinners, attend dance recitals or just throw the football in the back yard, then your core values are not in sync with this career choice.

 

This doesn’t mean that you should throw out the career field, but it may mean adjusting your choices to better support your core values.  And, you should also remember, that sometimes short-term sacrifices are made for long-term gain.

 

Step Two: Set Goals and Strategy to Support your Vision.  Once you have identified your core values, you can develop the vision for your life.  What is your “end game?”  Where do you see yourself five, ten, twenty years down the road?  We must begin setting our goals with the end in mine.

 

So often people are short-sited and don’t find fulfillment in their career and life because they never stop to take the time to think about what it is they really want out of life and what they were meant to give to the world. 

 

For example, my husband and I have the core value of “Good Stewardship” which means being a good manager of all that is entrusted to us – money, home, education, etc. We have the vision to live in a foreign country and be able to travel the world.  In order to do this, we set the goal to become debt-free.  From that goal, we chose the strategy to buy and sell a business as the means to achieve that vision.

 

Step 3: Seize the Start.  After you have clarified your core values and established your vision, goals and strategy, it’s time to get moving!  So often, people have good intentions, but they get stuck by never taking the first step.   One of my favorite sayings is “Just move!”  Just do something!  Just take action! Whether it is the right action or not, it doesn’t matter. The fact that you are breaking that inertia by starting the engine with create more activity and begin to clarify what it is that you need to be doing.

 

Don’t wait until you have all the answers. You will NEVER have all of the answers.  Just take baby steps and start the ball rolling.

 

Once you begin to take action, you will be energized to keep moving and discovering more about your vision.  When it is tied to your core values – those principles that define you- there is no way you can lose!  The world is waiting for you to live your best fulfilling life!

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