Happy Talk
“Talk about the things you’d like to do, you got to have a dream, if you don’t have a dream how you gonna have a dream come true?”. Those are lyrics from a song going back to the 1980s by Captain Sensible that was entitled ‘Happy Talk’. How good is your Happy Talk?
It’s not about whether you can be happy or not, it’s about having a dream, that dream comes true and automagically we become a whole load happier. However, if you don’t actually put a dream together or you don’t actually put a goal in place you won’t have any direction to follow. So how are you going to know that you’ve been successful or failed? How do you find that happiness?
Lots of people talk about goal setting directions, focus for the year ahead, the months ahead, the weeks ahead or just the next 3 hours. If you don’t actually set any sort of goal, how do you know if you should be celebrating or not?
Every year I generally do three challenges. I say generally because over the last few years sometimes they’ve been bigger, so I haven’t actually done three I’ve done multiple smaller versions leading up to one monster. And this year was no different. I did a monster in the summer with several smaller events building up to that. This is just my personal fitness, my hunger for challenges and the weekend warrior in me. Doing silly things that make me feel good, make me feel smug and self-righteous but also make me feel happy because I’ve achieved something, I’ve set a target that I’ve had to stretch myself to achieve. I’ve pushed myself physically and mentally beyond what I’ve done before, without trying to kill myself or putting myself in too much danger. I will never be an elite marathon runner, it’s not my desire, it’s not my hunger, let’s be honest it’s not my physical shape or ability, but these are the things I do that do push me to achieve, to challenge me further and to create success memories.
This is setting a goal; it’s setting that direction. I know at the end of the year when I reflect on what’s worked and what hasn’t, where I’ve had clear goals set out to reflect against it becomes clear where I have succeeded or not. In addition, I’ve shared these goals with other people which is a key point here, you must share your goals with other people, it makes you more likely to achieve them. The reason is simple because the next time you bump into Bob or Claire and they ask you how you are getting on you can respond with “I’ve done nothing” which clearly means that it wasn’t a very good target, it wasn’t a really good challenge or even a dream. Contrast that to saying “I’m on target, I’m going to do it in two weeks’ time, in two months’ time – we will make the deadline” that’s going to make you feel a whole load happier.
Goal setting works across the board in the business world, if not more so in academia and schools for students, also for weight loss or for health and fitness or even matrimonial bliss. We should all spend more time goal setting and putting dreams in place, otherwise, we risk the potential of just sitting there navel-gazing and thinking wouldn’t it be great if, without action, without taking strides. Without making things happen it’s just an idea! I know those who’ve read my words many times before know that I do FAFF about very well. The cause of this I believe is part procrastination, partly I’m not emotionally connected enough to the goal or there isn’t a big enough direction, a big enough drive to achieve it.
Sometimes it can just be the wrong goal, which means we need to focus on setting the right goal not just goals for goal’s sake. For me when a goal is right I can look into the eyes of my children and saying I will do this, I’m not a loser, I’m not a FAFFer who doesn’t achieve anything. Communicating through positive action towards your goal shows you as being committed, genuine and authentic and not fake or a hypocrite. By sharing your goals with other people, you become accountable and as those successes roll in you have something to talk about, with a happy tone making it happy talk.
As you reflect on your progress which goals are you proud of, that you can share with that ray of happiness and self-satisfaction that you’ve succeeded. Without action these goals and dreams go nowhere, without the action you’re not going to achieve them, and it won’t come together. What’s it going to take to inspire you to kick on over the next month and next year to achieve lots and lots of success and Happy Talk. With success, Happy Talk is easy – good luck.