Time after time I hear people chant: “I just want to be happy!” But it never dawns on them to define what happiness looks like to them, nor to plot out how to attain it as they would any other personal goal. Well happiness too, can become a reality, if given a straight-forward plan and a willingness to invest the effort it takes to achieve it.

Think about how it: Whenever you’ve purchased a big-ticket item, you planned out how much money you would need to put aside, how long it would take for you to save that much, where you would go to comparison-shop to get the best deal, and so forth. Even if you never actually wrote out a detailed plan, on some level the process was created and reviewed in your mind. Same thing if you wanted to lose weight to get in better physical shape, or find someone to date, or go on vacation. We plan almost everything major thing we want to have, do, or achieve in life , except for what we say we want most—happiness.