For true happiness you need a balanced life. If there is some important motivation going unfulfilled, it won't matter how successful you might seem to others, your life will feel unsatisfactory.

For example, if a person is lonely, it won't matter how much money they pile up in bank accounts, or how many large mansions they build. Their unfulfilled desire for companionship will leave them with a zero score on the friendship front. Even adding one friend would make a remarkable difference. But adding wealth beyond their needs will make very little difference.

Enjoyment of any particular motivation reaches a limit, and it cannot serve as a substitute for other kinds of satisfaction. To have happiness, you need to have a balanced life with different kinds of joys.

Each kind of joy satisfies a different motivator. Motivations can be grouped into 7 categories, so plan times in your life to cover them all. (Look in the table of contents of the Pathways help for "Step-by-Step Personal Strategic Planning" to find out how to set goals covering the 7 categories.)

From Pathways daily ideas file, copyright Arthur de Leyssac, 2009; all rights reserved.