High on Happiness

Posts Tagged ‘Goals’

A year ago Sunday, I set a goal to document the beauty of the changing seasons by taking a nature photo daily for a year and posting it on my Flickr page.

I knew, going in, that I would face days of rain and subzero temperatures, days when I didn’t feel especially well, or when work had drained my energy, or when I just plain wasn’t in the mood.  But the goal was so tempting, I set it anyway.  I would just push myself, I told myself.  And some days that’s exactly what I did.

Part of the enticement of the project was that it would require me to see how persevering I could be.  It was like accepting a dare from myself to see if I could do it.

And part of the allure lay in my wanting to test my theory that beauty is always present if you open yourself to seeing it.  Could I open myself to seeing it every single day?  Would I tire of the quest, or grow jaded?

Mostly, I was curious about what the adventure would teach me, what I would learn along the way.

This past Saturday I posted my final photos for the project, and the most dominant feeling I have about actually completing this goal is one of overwhelming gratitude.  Aside from the collection of photos itself—and I am pleased with them—the treasures the project produced are too numerous to tell, and priceless.

Not only did I discover hidden corners of my immediate surroundings (Almost all the photos were taken within a 12 mile radius of my home.)  but I discovered hidden places in myself, too:  Reserves of determination, wellsprings of joy, new ways to look at the world.  I learned that seeking beauty is its own reward, that beauty never disappoints.  It never fails to lift the spirit, and its restorative powers are immense.

But perhaps the most interesting thing I learned was about the power of a meaningful destination and the nature of the journey toward it.  The goal provides direction, and if it truly is a meaningful goal, filled with the promise of personal rewards, it also provides the motivation to keep you keeping on, even when obstacles are immense and the road is frozen, dark and foreboding.

But the joy is in the journey, in the moment to moment focus on the walk itself.  It’s in noticing the details, in allowing yourself to be immersed in the work before you, in appreciating the very step you’re taking now, the texture and sound and color of it.  The goal is an abstraction; but the journey is immediate and alive.  And when at last you reach your destination, it seems insignificant somehow.  The true rewards are the ones you gathered along the way.  And you wouldn’t trade them for the world.

Except for a few stolid fishermen hunched in flannel and rain gear along its bank, the lake is deserted.

The fishermen ignore me as I squish along the shore between raindrops, camera in hand,  looking for photo possibilities.  If they notice me at all, they dismiss me as someone foreign to their fraternity, not knowing that I, too, am simply there for my catch of the day.

I amble slowly, walking with care through the slick mud, trying to avoid the larger puddles as my eyes scan the lake and the bordering woods, waiting for something to snag my attention.

Finally, about a quarter mile down the shore, I spot a patch of vibrant blue at the water’s edge.  Irises!  They’re wild irises!  And how their color gleams through the gray gloom of the day!

The kid inside me squeals and turns cartwheels and I hear myself laughing quietly as I train my camera’s lens on my find.  I wonder if the huddled fishermen feel like that inside when a fish finally nibbles at their bait, if that’s why they sit for long hours in the rain.

I take my photos and head back to my car, sending a silent little dart of camaraderie to each fisherman as I pass him.  We’re cut from the same cloth after all, we who follow our intentions regardless of the weather, who pursue our goals with patient perseverance, even in the rain.  We share a secret, a results-backed knowing, that between the raindrops, there comes the reward.

I’m almost to my car when I see one of the fisherman’s lines go tense and watch him come to life as he works his reel with a practiced hand.  I’m right behind him as the glistening fish clears the water and I smile in recognition as I hear him quietly laugh.

It’s been a week of transitions for me, of milestones reached and new beginnings.  I launched Positive-Living-Now.com on Sunday, of course, and yesterday marked my 300th post here at High on Happiness.

If you have been visiting here awhile, you know about my photo project, “Vision 365.”  Almost a year ago, I challenged myself to see if I could take and post one photo a day for a year that captured the joy of the One Song (Uni-Verse) Singing.  And it dawned on me this week that I’m only 18 days away from completing it.

I never committed myself to a goal before that required action every day for a year.  I told myself going in that I would need to be out in the rain and the cold, that days would come when the last thing I felt like doing was to seek out a publishable photo.  And I was right.  The year did have its share of days when I headed out for a photo shoot motivated far more by sheer stubbornness than by enthusiasm.

But looking back, I can say that it was one of the most valuable experiences I’ve ever had, its rewards far outstripping the cost of a few days of discomfort.  It pushed me, and pulled me forward, and revealed the value of focus and discipline.  It stretched me and showed me my strengths.  It connected me more deeply with nature, leading me to look at it with fresh eyes every day.  It gave me stories, and metaphors and songs.

More than anything, though, it showed me that beauty is everywhere, in all seasons, freely given to all who would see.  It expresses itself through a sweeping infinity of color and form, harmonious and balanced, ever changing and always singing of joy.

I think any personally meaningful goal to which you are committed can bring you these kinds of insights.  I’ve learned so much already through my commitment to writing this blog.  Now, a new challenge unfolds as I begin to craft the pages for Positive-Living-Now, an opportunity to discover yet more ways that the One Song sings.  And how humbled and delighted I am to have you along for the ride!

The showers began in the wee hours and continued throughout the day.  Coming as they did on a Saturday, no doubt they caused some consternation.  It’s the season, after all, for weddings and picnics in the park.  But for me, it was a day of raining joy.

With the perfect excuse to postpone my errands, I brewed a pot of tea and parked myself at my computer to write.  I’m working hard on my imminent launch of Positive-Living-Now, a sister website for High on Happiness, where you’ll find a growing wealth of resources for building more meaning, joy and satisfaction into your own life.   (You can sign up right now to be in on the launch.  Check it out!)

As much as I appreciate and enjoy my day job, it does gobble up my energy and time.  To have an entire day to spend on my key projects is bliss.  So today I reveled in my writing and my graphic arts.

To have meaningful personal goals makes of your life a joyous journey.  They provide such a sense of direction and purpose.  They illuminate your path. They call you forward and stretch you to learn in their service.

When you have meaningful goals, they pull you to tap your best strengths, to hone your abilities, to risk leaps you wouldn’t otherwise have dared.  They keep you going when you’re weary and discouraged.  They tantalize and torment you with problems to solve, and so you’re never bored.

You find yourself getting lost in them, losing all sense of time because you’re so engaged.  And when at last you set them aside for the day, the satisfaction washes over you as if it’s been raining joy.

Down the road, we’ll talk about how to find a genuinely meaningful goal at Positive-Living Now.   For now, ask yourself what you really love doing, what you would most want to create in your life—even if you have no idea how you would find the time or the means for doing it.  Then just lightly play with your dream from time to time.  See where it leads you.  See what possibilities float into your awareness, what options appear that could move you toward a clearer vision of the shape it could take, the steps you might make in its direction.  It all begins, after all, with a dream.

Grab one.  Nurture it a little.  Watch how it grows, and how it grows you.  See if you don’t wake up one morning watching joy clouds moving your way.

Oh sure, just what you wanted to hear, right smack-dab in the middle of the biggest party time of the year!  Here you are, stuffed full of cookies and fruitcake, (okay, maybe not fruitcake) and laying in the goods for the big New Year’s Eve bash, and you’re supposed to think about self-discipline?  Good one, hey?

Well, I only want you to think about it long enough to give the boys in the back room something to chew on.  (That’s what I call that clever part of you that delivers new ideas and solutions to you.  It’s a specialized division of your subconscious, if you will.)

Here’s the deal.  Come January 1 (And it’s coming fast!), you’re going to have this notion that you’re going to adopt some so-called resolutions and make a new, improved you of yourself.   You know, the one that’s finally going to be buff, and organized, and get the garage cleaned out and stuff.

That’s cool.  If that’s what really spins your wheels.  But if it’s only what you think you should do, forget it.  I happen to be something of an expert on goal-setting, and the one thing you absolutely have to know about choosing a goal is that it MUST be personally meaningful to you.  In other words, you have to really care about it and know why you want it.   If you’ve got that, you’ve got all you need to get there.

Now chances are, unless you have really been thinking about it, you only have some vague thoughts about what you would really like to achieve in the coming year.   If you know, great.  If you don’t, why not let your resolution be something along the lines of taking a couple weeks to figure it out and then get into gear.

Either way, once you have a fairly clear idea of what aspect of your life you want to develop, make a commitment to it.   That’s where self-discipline comes in.  It means you give yourself to your new direction whole-heartedly, that you’ll pick yourself up and start again when you backslide, that you’ll keep on keeping on no matter what, that you’ll learn and apply and practice everything it requires of you.

That’s where the happiness enters.  When you wake every morning knowing that your day has purpose, that you have a fresh opportunity to move in the direction you have chosen, your life has meaning.   And there’s nothing like a meaningful life to make you the happiest kid on the block.  I guarantee it.