Is it Time to Reflect on Your Goals?

When I was five years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.
When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down "happy." 
They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life.
John Lennon

by Skip Cohen

​It's a typical Sunday morning, and Reflections is ALWAYS off the topic of marketing. I ran across the John Lennon quote above, and it's so relevant to my life today. Sure there have been a few emotional speed bumps along the way, and being happy has always been important, but I never thought of it as the key to life.

Everyone thinks that wisdom comes with aging, but the truth is, wisdom is simply the result of lessons learned. And with many lessons, my internal navigation system, just like GPS on a wrong turn, needed to readjust the route to the goal. What makes looking back on my "routing" so interesting is that I never really thought of happiness as the ultimate goal.

Many years ago, back in my Polaroid days, I met a motivational speaker, Ed Foreman. I remember him telling an anecdotal story, which I'm doing my best to paraphrase...

A couple is talking about taking a great vacation, and the husband says, "Just wait until we get into our new house. We'll have so much fun." A few years later, they still hadn't taken that vacation, and he said, "Just wait until we get the kids out of the house and in college, then we'll really have fun." A few years later, it was, "Let's just get the wedding paid for, and we'll be able to relax and have fun." A few more years, it was, "As soon as I retire, we're going to have so much fun. Finally, he was in his casket on the way to his grave reflecting on his life when he thought, "Oh my God, I forgot to have fun!"

Here's my point—take the time to look at your goals. Are they in line with all the things that make you happy? Do you recognize those moments of joy in your life, or do they get missed because you're overly focused on the wrong goal? Does happiness get put on the back burner, replaced by putting all your energy into building your brand, business, or something completely material?

I'm not suggesting you give up your goals—just take the time to make sure they don't block whatever makes you smile, inside and out.

Wishing everybody a day filled with things that make you happy. Take the time to think about the goals you're pursuing. Check to see if your internal GPS needs a little rerouting. All along the way, go for those eleven-second therapeutic hugs I always write about. Those special people on the other end of those hugs are the ones to help you find happiness, regardless of how obscure it might sometimes be.

The bottom line - Don't forget to have fun!

Happy Sunday...or Monday on the other side of the world.

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do
than by the ones you did do.
​Mark Twain