First and foremost, to aspire towards happiness is not enough. Just wanting is only half the battle won. To attain it there must be some kind of action involved and this most certainly begins with setting goals. The most important reason for setting aims or goals is to provide a way to measure if you have achieved it or not. For example, my aim is to be happy. In order to be happy I must have enough money and job security as well as a stable and happy family. Therefore the next logical step is to provide a timeframe to achieve this goal. If we set a goal based on a timeframe, happiness will be more easily achievable. A young person could aim to get his degree before he turns 25, get a stable high paying job by 30 and get married before he/she is 35. Thus, having a goal or goals will help discern the level of our happiness.
Secondly, we can attain happiness when we have a goal because it gives us something to work towards or aim for. However, please note that the beauty of having goals is that it can be modified to suit ourselves and our situations. And once we have achieved it, we can create new goals. Conversely, if we cannot attain it, we can modify them to be more realistic. For instance, Mahatma Ghandi's goal in life was to achieve peace through peaceful means. Furthermore, he was happiest when there are no wars and people can live in peace. Even when he was sent to jail, he still held on to his goal which was to solve things through peaceful means, not war. And even in jail, he could attain happiness - Ghandi is