Regardless of how successful you are in life or how many goals you have achieved I'm sure you are just like the rest of the planet and are susceptible to bouts of negative thinking and unhappiness. Do you find the trials of life a challenge or a struggle? Perhaps you are very successful yet have an empty feeling inside that nothing can fill. Do you become frustrated at the pace of life and feel it is an up-hill struggle just to stay ahead? Have you ever even got ahead?

A very common phenomenon that occurs with those people who pursue, and even, achieve goals is getting caught in the trap of believing the goal itself is what they want. Do you strive hard to fulfill a desire and then become disillusioned when you achieve it like a great anti-climax? Perhaps you do not even allow yourself to achieve your goals in the first place.

The key to remaining happy lies not in setting goals or even in achieving them! It lies in the reason behind the goals. It lies in the emotions you associate with the goal itself!

The true reason you have for pursuing your goals and striving to achieve anything in your life can be traced to one reason only – the desire to be happy. Do you remember why you set your goals in the first place? Why do you want a better life for yourself and your family? Can you recall that feeling of happiness that achieving your goal will bring you?

When we forget the reason behind our efforts we tend to get caught up in the effort itself instead of the rewards we are seeking. Have you fallen into that trap? Have you become frustrated with the course of your life or the state of your interpersonal relationships? If you have compromised your own happiness and the feeling of being happy is now alien to you then take heart for there is a very simple solution.

Start to redirect your focus back to the things that make you happy. Look for the things in your life that you can be grateful for. Take inventory of your life and list all those things that truly make you happy. This will cause a shift to occur in your thought processes and your energy will change as a result. Allow yourself to fully experience the feelings of gratitude that you have while you perform this exercise.

Within a matter of a few days of practising this you will be in a better mental and emotional state to re-focus on your goals and your problems in life in general.

Revisit your goals and start by remembering why you set them in the first place. Feel the positive emotions that will be generated when you have achieved your aims and stay focused on those feelings. This is happiness. Happiness in itself is not an emotion. It is the emotions behind your desires that create a feeling of happiness. Feeling the positive emotions around having achieved your aims and living your life the way you want to live it is the quickest way to happiness.

Formulate a plan that will guide your life towards the things that you know will make you happy - Those things that will cause you to feel positive emotions. When you are sure of what you want and you have decided on a course of action to take you closer to those things then stay focused on the image of having them. Identify the feeling behind that image. How great does that image make you feel? Make the image real like it was happening now. What are the emotions behind that scene? By constantly thinking of that image you will recall those positive emotions and remain in a state of happiness. You will have the added advantage of drawing opportunities to actually have those things enter your life.

Stay focused on the rewards that these things will bring and the emotions that having them will evoke. By keeping your focus on the benefits and emotional rewards that will come from achieving your desires you will build a solid emotional barrier against unhappiness.

The key to being happy is your perspective and your focus. Therefore every morning take five minutes and really think about the things you have in your life that you are grateful for. No matter how small these things may be give thanks for them. Now recall some instances from your past that brought you joy and feel the gratitude you have that you experienced these things. In the beginning you will recall many wonderful times and easily give thanks for them but after some time you will even recall seeming negative events and give thanks for them also. No matter how bad a situation was in the past you learned a lesson from it and it helped to make you the person you are today! Give thanks.

Then take ten minutes and focus on the things you want from life. Visualize your goals and evoke the positive emotions that achieving the goal will bring you. Once you have formulated these positive emotions and are feeling really good squeeze your first finger against your thumb and say "I am happy". You are literally anchoring those positive emotions to the physical act of pressing you finger and thumb together. Do this everyday!

Now after a week you will be able to squeeze your finger and thumb together any time you wish to feel all those great feelings again. So remember stay positive and be happy!