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10 | UCR Spring 2013
2
Careful: Those lowered expectations
you label as realistic can be more harmful
than you think.
People who achieve ambitious goals
attain a larger level of satisfaction
compared with those who set and achieve
more conservative goals, according to a
study by Assistant Marketing Professor
Cecile K. Cho and
co-author Gita
Venkataramani Johar, a
professor at Columbia
University. In other
words, aiming high leads
to a larger quantity of
happiness.
“Our finding shows
that people who set low
goals and achieve them
end up feeling like they fell
short, because people often
compare their performance
to what could have been,”
Cho says.
For example, a student
who aims for a B in a
highly challenging class
Think Big
“People often
compare their
performance to
what could have
been.”
and achieves it is unlikely to be content
with the grade and will wonder whether
she could have done better, Cho says.
It’s difficult to predict how happy your
performance will make you, so it’s better
to set high goals and strive for them
regardless of whether you achieve them.
The happiness from higher achievement
in turn can trigger
motivation to
raise work
performance and
even enhance
one’s personal
life.
So think big
– your happiness
may be at stake.