Two goals one can set for oneself is to try and be happy and to try and make others happy. These two goals both contribute towards ones happiness, they both contribute to ones self esteem and they both make others more likely to like oneself as shown in the diagram below.
Try to Be Happy
Become Happy |
|
Feel Good About Self Others Like self |
Try to make others happy
Are these the correct goals to set? Abraham Maslow, in his work Motivation and Personality, defined a Hierarchy of Needs as follows.
| Level | Name | Characteristics |
| 1 | Physiological | Directly related to survival-food water sleep |
| 2 | Safety | Structure Order Predictability |
| 3 | Belongingness and Love | |
| 4 | Esteem | Self Esteem and esteem from others |
| 5 | Self Actualization | Fulfilling our potential |
We need to set goals so that we meet our needs starting from our highest priorities. According to Maslow our highest priority are those things that are directly related to our survival and safety. Logically our primary goal should be our survival and safety. That means living in a good area and taking precautions for ourselves and our loved ones. Another priority is doing what's necessary to make sure we stay employed or can find another job if we lose our current one. Having a good income is what makes it possible to live in a safe area.
If we focus on being happy we may not be on our guard against threats to our survival. We may not be motivated to get the training we need so that if our job vanishes we will be able to find another one. It may be better to feel a little anxiety. Once we are taking the course of action to insure our survival than it does not make sense to worry and one might as well be happy.
5 goals
Achieving each of these goals generally helps one achieve each of the other goals listed above.
