Just One Goal For 2018 - #BeHappy

Every year at this time, it is all about goal setting. I have to admit that this is an area I personally struggle with. When it comes to team or department goals, no problem. Personal goals are a completely different story. For some reason, this has always been a daunting task. I know there are areas of my professional career I can improve, but is that the right focus? So, what if you were to look at this from a completely different perspective?

If I told you my number one goal for 2018 and beyond is "Be Happy," what would your thoughts be? I am sure many would say well, that seems like a cop-out on coming up with something that is really important. What could be more important than being happy? If you think about it, this is fundamentally the only thing that helps you each day to be as productive as possible. Yes, I know what you are thinking sure this is an easy statement to say, but not so easy to do.

For me, there have been little changes in my life that have really made a difference to make me happy. The first one is to make sure that you pay yourself first each week. What I mean by this is that before you start worrying about your work tasks for the week, do the things that make you most happy first. A couple of personal examples I have include writing and learning. I enjoy blogging and writing articles. For me, this energizes me and puts me in a good place to start off my week. About ten years ago, this wouldn't have been the case. My Sunday nights were very restless, thinking about all of the work tasks I needed to accomplish for the upcoming week. Instead of doing something for myself, I would think maybe I should go in early to the office and see if I can get a few things off of my plate. Do you know what happened? My plate continued to fill right back up, but my happiness level didn't.

Some people think I am crazy to get up and go work out early in the morning before I go to work. Working out also energizes me and helps me have a positive attitude that carries over to my workday. For the times when I would miss my morning workout, I would think that I could just do it after work. By the end of most days, I have spent most of my energy, so working out then never pans out for me. Pay yourself first is so important. I arrive 20 to 30 minutes early each day to work. I look for some articles or pick up a book to read to learn something new. This starts my day off right, and instead of worrying about the X number of tasks I need to do for the day, I think about the "what ifs" for the future of what I am doing. My days now begin excited and ready to get things done!

The second thing that has made a big difference in being happy is to start the day with some conversation. Each day I get up, I look forward to talking with people I know at the gym or the wonderful folks at the coffee shop. Instead of shutting out the world and only thinking about the work ahead of you for the day, enjoy the compassion and positive energy you get when talking with others. I read somewhere that a study was done about a small village in Italy where it seemed people lived longer. Much research went into trying to figure out whether it was diet, exercise, or something about the way of life in the village. It turns out that one of the key factors was a lifestyle of having friends and talking with them daily. Having conversations keeps your world open and alive. For me, conversation is a great stress reliever. If you are worried about starting a conversation up with someone, I wouldn't be. I have found that small talk might feel awkward at first but becomes easier each time you do it. Small talk then leads to areas of common interest, and before long, you look forward to the next conversation!

The last thing I recommend is focusing on what energizes you and what you are good at. I remember early in my career, it seemed like all I would ever do for goals were things that I didn't necessarily enjoy, nor had the desire to make a top priority in my life. Did I try to work at them? Yes, I did. Did they make me happy? Absolutely not. Nowadays, I focus on things I want to learn and become better at. I am a technical person who loves working with data. If you told me that my goal for the next year was to learn how to code web pages, I would struggle. That is definitely not one of my strengths. It also is not where my passion lies. Taking the time to learn something you really enjoy and become good at is tremendously valuable to the company you work at versus just getting by doing something your heart is not into. A great example for me was learning Power BI and showing others how it could be used in our organization.

If you are sitting down this week trying to write your goals, I hope these suggestions can help you out.

Here's to 2018! #BeHappy