Is it really almost the end of January? I'm a big fan of, "Set goals and you will achieve goals," mentality. I usually start putting my business and professional goals down on paper right after Thanksgiving . Then, I write a blog or a memo or something telling everyone else how to do so in early December. Then, I study my goals and get very prepared to make them happen.

This year that did not happen.

This year was hectic for me personally. In fact, my professional success aside, 2014 was a pretty rough year. I was scrambling to keep up around Thanksgiving. I was missing deadlines I had set for 2014 . Taking time to set more goals for 2015 seemed silly. I found myself on December 28th with not one goal written down. Gasp!

We all know you have to write it down if you really expect it to happen, right? Excuses aside, I was stressed this year. While I was busy, and still liked what I was doing, I was a little depressed started to feel a little sorry for myself. Mostly this was because I felt like I was working way too hard for my success.

When I finally forced myself to sit down and put some goals to paper, my mind, and my paper for that matter, were blank.  So I did what everyone does when they don't know what to write down. I went to Google. I  typed in "setting goals".  When you consider that as I scanned through the numerous google pages on the subject that I eventually saw my own posts from years past, it was really pretty pathetic. Stay with me.

One of the listings (not mine) had something that caught my eye. It was a simple line.

"What do you want the most?"

Now we all know the master, Franklin Covey pushes "What Matter's Most" and I had the class, (used to) use the planner, I get it. But this said, "What do YOU WANT most."

It was profound for me. You know how in a movie, they will lift the words off the page digitally and make them glow to help the viewer understand what the character is reading? Yeah. Imagine that happening to me as I read them. Those words very literally seemed to scream out at me. I know what you are thinking (insert eye roll). I thought the same thing; so I went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up with one word on my mind: "HAPPY".

What did I want most? I wanted to be happy. Geez, how did those people do that happy thing?  I went to my desk. Sat down and wrote. " In 2015 I will be H-A-P-P-Y," on a purple sticky note. I stuck it on my monitor. Perhaps because it was an obnoxious shade of purple, I was more distracted by this little sticky note than the house full of kids screaming through the last days of their holiday break.

(Chalk on Blackboard) "Coffee break!"

I walked to my kitchen to fire up the Keurig before posting a few random jobs and looking out my back window, I had an epiphany. I stood there and thought about how happy used to feel. I was a lot younger and had a lot less responsibilities. I was still a recruiter back then. Hmm. At that moment I simply made up my mind that I WAS GOING to be happy in 2015.

Bare with me. I know. Why should you care? This is a recruiting blog, right?

Here's why:  Happy gives you power in the recruitment industry; power in building relationships. I believe, without a doubt, happy recruiters attract more people than a hard ass ever will.  Happy recruiters get results because, well, people sort of like them. What? Could it be that simple? Hmm. Let me think back to when I was happy myself. Happy recruiters have clients that call them back. Happy recruiters have candidates that can't resist listening to them sell a job. They don't take a no as no, they take it as a "not now" and move on.

As I sat all day, looking at that "Happy" little sticky note, I continued to think about the last time I was really "a happy camper" AND a recruiter. Despite my perceived "success", silly titles, blogs I write, what have you,I still wasn't really happy. Success did not equal happiness.

Was I a success when I WAS happy? Well,sure! I thought so anyway. On my terms I was most certainly happy and successful. When I was happy, people just seemed to fall in to my lap. Recruiting was a passion, not a career. I lived and breathed recruiting because it made me happy to help people find new jobs, or to help others find relief for the open slot on their team. I made good money. I certainly didn't have to force myself to pick up a phone or to work a few extra hours to accomplish my goals.

Next, I searched for the point at which the paradigm had changed. When had I moved from thinking I need to be successful to be happy instead of the other way around?  It occurred to me, that it was at the point that I started being a recruiter for ME instead of for THEM. They were tired of me being a jerk. They wanted to talk to someone that cared more about them and their needs than a fee.

It is sort of hard for me to admit this to all of you. I mean, who wants to announce their own short comings on a public forum? I'm also not suggesting you throw out making goals, or being persistent in collecting a fee. However, I suspect there are others reading this right now, that can relate. If it helps just one of you have more success because you are happy then I'm happy, and that is my #1 goal. For business; for life, stay happy.