We know all too well from our experiences in other areas of life- whether it is business, science, or sports- without clearly defined goals, little is achieved and most people underachieve. Michelangelo once wrote, "The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."

I believe that there is a direct connection between happiness with one's self and achieving a goal. As simple as that may sound, I was always trying to satisfy this need to excel in other ways and I was always left wanting.

My experiences of people and life continually teach me that those who don't have the inner happiness to strive and to reach for high goals in their lives fall easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pity. I have also leaned that those who are living lives with high reaching goals are not looking over some hill, or around the next corner for some elusive "future happiness." They're are already living to be the best they can be, and that brings a happiness all its own.

Conquering a high reaching goal, gives us an inner response to our deep desire for happiness. Keeping our inner turmoil from crying out, "Show us how to find the happiness that our hearts are hungry for." Because our hearts are already telling us, "To be all we can be." It only makes sense that if we are not true to ourselves that we will never find happiness. Imagine if a bird tried to be a fish, or a tree tried to be a cloud.

The challenge life presents each one of us, is to truly become ourselves. Now I'm not talking about the "self" that we fantasize about being, not the "self" ours want us to be.

But the authentic person that manifest itself in every person. You have an essential purpose, and once you find it keep it always in your sights. This is the great secret of life.