4 Things Genuinely Happy People Focus On At The Start Of A New Year
Mert Coşkun | Canva There's something genuinely happy people understand about the start of a New Year that the rest of us are still figuring out: it's not about having the perfect circumstances or making huge, dramatic changes. It's about where you consistently put your attention. While most people start a new year making lists of everything they want to be different, genuinely happy people approach it from the opposite direction.
Instead, they zero in on a few key areas that actually move the needle on how fulfilled they feel day to day. These four things might seem simple, but they're what separate people who feel genuinely content from those who are constantly chasing the next thing they think will finally make them happy.
Here are the four things genuinely happy people focus on at the start of a new year:
1. What they actually want (not what they're supposed to want)
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You need to have confidence and intention before you can proceed with any serious activity. Thus, your spiritual or material success requires that you have such an intention of achievement. Be intentional, and you'll be assured of your success. If you wish to get up from the chair on which you are sitting, you have to give your mind a clear signal of that intention and then take the required physical action.
If you are not sure whether you want to sit or get up, you will most likely not stand up. Similarly, if you do not have a clear intention of what you want for your life, you will not be successful. When you become clear and specific, the magic of manifestation is set in motion.
2. What matters to them personally
You can achieve great things if you have definite purposes in mind. You need to be very clear about what you want to achieve; you will only achieve it by mere chance. You may have purpose, but if you are tamed and subdued by misfortune or fear, you cannot achieve greatness. The Universe will not give such a person a clear path. Moreover, there will always be obstacles and blockages on any road you travel.
The measure of a great mind is that it can rise above all trials and difficulties. When circumstances and opportunities are not what you intend or expect, take action to live a life of significance and contribution. Your measure of success or greatness is the manner in which you can rise above all trials and difficulties.
Research showed that when your goals line up with what you actually care about deep down, rather than what you think you should want, you experience way higher well-being and feel like your life has real purpose. The goals that connect to your personal values are the ones you actually stick with because they mean something to you, not just because someone else told you they're important.
3. What their approach to the new year will be
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People who have a high level of consciousness work with the spirit of intention, and then they put their attention on it. This attention triggers the action necessary to materialize the intention. They take the action and leave the outcome to the laws of the Universe. They display an attitude of positive expectancy.
To help you clarify what your life is all about, ask yourself the following questions:
• What excites my interest and passion?
• What do I want out of life?
• What makes me say either yes or no to an opportunity?
• What sacrifices would I have to make to get what I want?
• Am I willing to pay the price by making the sacrifices?
When you clearly define what you intend to do, where you intend to go, or who you intend to become, the elements fall into place to give effect to your intentions. If you give your dreams and desires a name, a place, a time, a color, a size, and a feeling, and you do it with sensitivity and commitment, you begin to give life to your dreams and desires. Clarity serves to give focus that facilitates the manifestation of intention. Clarity of objective precedes all other elements in the process of a successful life.
These 5 questions will help you clarify your objectives:
• What am I trying to do?
• What are my reasons for wanting to do it?
• What methods am I using to do it?
• What are the critical assumptions that I am making?
• What are the alternatives, if my assumptions are wrong?
4. What steps they plan to take this year to achieve their goals
Live your greatness. You are either living your dreams or you are living someone else’s dreams. Decide what you want in life and be intentional about it. Be a winner. Climb your highest mountains of spiritual and material success. Resolve today to be intentional in taking just three steps that will ensure you succeed in life. Your challenge is to take some new action in the next 24 hours, on something you have read in this article that will cause a powerful result in your life in the next 3 months.
Research found that people who make specific if-then plans about when and where they'll take action achieve their goals way more often than people who just have good intentions. Making a concrete plan like "If it's Monday morning, then I'll go to the gym" automates the behavior so you don't have to keep deciding whether to do it; you just do it when the time comes.
Decide what your primary spiritual or material goal is, and focus intensely on delivering it. Yes, review what is happening in your life. Are you pursuing urgent and secondary things, rather than primary and critical activities? Focus is the name of the game. Your time is limited to 24 hours a day.
Your financial resources are limited, in that you do not have the money to do all the things you would like. Your energy is limited. Your emotions have breaking points. Thus, you need to be focused and intentional to deliver what you want in life. This is an excellent time to ponder whether you are focused enough to generate the spiritual and material growth and happiness you desire. Be intentional!
Phillip Rochford is a development coach with more than 40 years of experience in both the corporate and personal arenas.
