The happiness of making progress toward a goal.

My resolution for June was to “Eat a peach”—embrace adventure, push myself to my limits, aim higher, indulge my interests.

And a focus for “Eat a peach” is this blog. I’m technologically very backward, and when I try to monkey around in the internet world, I’m often overwhelmed with the nasty feelings of stupidity and helplessness. Nevertheless, I vowed to persist in improving my site. Recently I’ve had three successes.

The first success was managing to change my URL to www.happiness-project.com from www.happinessproject.typepad.com. That original URL was just too long, and I didn’t like having the word “typepad” there. It took me five separate “help-tickets” from Typepad support to coach me through the process, but I stuck with it.

Second, a reader emailed me to suggest that in the Wednesday Tips section of the left column, instead of listing the dates and subjects of the lists, I should make the list into links. That way readers could instantly zap their way to a particular list, instead of having to hunt it down through the archive.

I read his email with a sigh. Of course, he was right. But how to do it? It only required one day and one help-ticket to get that done.

And today, after two help-tickets, I’m inserting my first image. Like so many of these tasks, it wasn’t hard—once I knew what to do.
Anyone who knows anything is chuckling in amusement at the fact that I’m congratulating myself for such very simple tasks—but for me, they count as successes. Each time I look at the blog, I get a little jolt of satisfaction.

Making tangible progress toward a concrete goal is a great contributor to happiness, so it’s important to incorporate that into your day, whether as part of work (as in my blog upgrades), or as part of a hobby (gardening, collecting, crafts).

Your goal needs to be clearly defined, to give you the satisfaction of recognizing your progress. In fact, studies show that those who frame their goals in concrete terms are 50% more likely to feel confident that they’ll hit those goals, and 32% more likely to feel in control of their lives.

Seeing things take shape under your hand, making things better, is enormously gratifying. Even if you deem the final goal to be fairly insignificant—cleaning a closet, organizing fishing tackle, building a bird house—the boost to happiness can be quite significant.

My next goal? Figure out Technorati.

weblog; goals, plans, hopes; happiness

Comments

[Autumn]

I've been blogging for three years next week. If you figure out Technorati can you email me and explain it in small words? Oh, I get the idea... but... sometimes. Let's just say it still confuses me. We're working on adding tags to my site (in addition to the current categories) and it's been a struggle.

Congrats on the image thing. I mean it too. We all have to start somewhere. I did, and now I'm programming my own blog.

Good job.

[meatbrain]

Gretchen, there is a certain breed of geek that derives enormous satisfaction and happiness from helping others master technological intricacies. I know, 'cause I'm one of them.

Make your readers happy. Ask us for help. Everybody gets happier then.

[Lucy]

Well said, Gretchen! And good for you for working the system and figuring out your website tweaks. I second meatbrain too - your readers would be happy to provide guidance on future tweaks.

[helen]

Hey - good post and thanks for the links on the tips - I was thinking the same thing yesterday and this is very handy!

[Gretchen Rubin]

Thanks for the nice words and offers of support! It's reassuring to discover that people are eager to help. You may come to regret your offer -- but hey, "do good, feel good." That's the Samaritan effect, and one of the best ways to boost happiness.

[Starbucker]

Gretchen, one of the most gratifying things about my blogging adventure (like you, I was never big on the technology thing) has been the outpouring of help and support from my fellow bloggers. It's been amazing. Also like you, I've grown to appreciate and derive happiness from those "little things" like posting a picture to a blog (I had a very similar reaction when I figured that out!). Those "jolts" are cool! Keep posting about them - it's nice to know I'm not the only one. All the best.

[Tiffany]

Giving yourself monthly resolutions is genius. Why didn't I think of that long ago, before I'd jettisoned several (unfulfilled) New Year's resolutions? Impossible to keep to something for a whole year, but keeping to it for a month is totally do-able. Thanks!

[Sheila]

Gretchen, I celebrate everything new thing I learn, including how to post images and links. I'm new at this blog thing (a week) and look forward to reading more of your blog which certainly looks interesting. Read a bit of your bio and can identify with the lawyer thing since I once thought that was what I wanted to do. I, however, only got as far as getting the J.D.

[Helen]

Gretchen - what is the research on writing down goals? Do you have a reference that I might use? Thanks.