having something to look forward to

from The Happiness Project

the importance of having something to look forward to. (There's just no graceful way to avoid ending the sentence with a proposition, sorry.)

I hadn’t quite focused on this aspect of happiness, but now I see how important it is.

My First Splendid Truth is: to tackle happiness, you must think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.

Having something to look forward to makes you “feel good” and may also give an “atmosphere of growth” to your life, because the future seems bright.

Also, my Third Splendid Truth is that… happiness is a four-fold path, or a house with four stories, or a four-petalled flower – any ideas for poetic yet appropriate imagery to use?

Well, for now, I’ll just say that the Third Splendid Truth is: there are four stages for enjoying a happy event:
-- anticipation (looking forward to it)
-- savoring (enjoying it in the moment – remember to turn off your cell phone!)
-- expression (sharing your pleasure with others, to heighten your experience)
-- reflection (looking back on happy times – so take pictures)

Anticipation is a key stage; by having something to look forward to, no matter what your circumstances, you bring happiness into your life well before the event actually takes place. In fact, sometimes the happiness in anticipation is greater than the happiness actually experienced in the moment – that’s known as “rosy prospection.”