Monday, March 1, 2010

My Happiness Project


I've been reading Gretchen's Rubin's The Happiness Project. So inspiring and motivating! The Happiness Project acts on the fact that "days are long, but years fly by", therefor encouraging us to live each moment and find as much happiness in life as possible. The author comes up with all sorts of tips, tricks, goals and plans that lead her to personal happiness.

I've felt a bit down in the dumps lately and thanks to blog world and my own inability to shut the computer off and be constructive, I can't seem to really pull myself out of this rut. I've come up with my own little way of creating a happiness project. I figure at the very least, this will give me some direction and goals to work towards. And well, I think everyone could afford to really look at themselves and make some changes.

Basically, I took some random things from the book, some random things I've read elsewhere and my own experiences and self reflections to figure out what I need to work on and in which direction I hope to head. I haven't ironed out everything yet. I'm really in the beginning stages so far, but this has definitely got me thinking and planning ahead a bit. Hopefully, in the next few days or so I will come up with a more solid plan. In the meantime, here's a basic breakdown of 3 of the 12 areas I'm working on. I plan on talking about the others later this week.

1. Marriage - I have a wonderful husband who works his butt off on a daily basis. He's up and out the door by 6am and back in the door anywhere between 6pm and 10pm. I tend to carry out all of our day to day tasks (make lunches, make dinner, clean, tidy up, walk dog, etc,). It's very easy for me to become resentful. I'd like to work on giving him a little down time when he gets home, being more affectionate, running with him in the mornings, turning off the computer/tv and having quiet conversations, more date nights, and doing tiny acts of love throughout the day.

2. Friendships - I've been feeling a little isolated lately. I've never been one to have groups of friends, but I've always had a handful of really great girlfriends separate from each other. Recently, I've had a falling out with one friend and I have the feeling that a relationship with another close friend is becoming more and more distant. Some of these things are my fault, I admit it. Others I've felt are out of my hands. I think it's hard to make new friends at this stage in my life. I mean where do you even start? I'd like to really work on keeping and nurturing the friendships I have. Maybe I need to make a phone call or send a card to try to repair a broken friendship (scary!)? I also plan on putting myself out there a bit more. Even if I don't make new "friends", perhaps I can acquire a few more acquaintances and get to know some more people in my town.

3. Career - I have two great jobs that I love. They both require lots of self motivation and self monitoring. I don't really have anyone to report to on a regular basis and I'm really on my own most days. It's so easy to put things off until tomorrow, do the bare minimum to get through the day, not put in a lot of effort. In order to be happy, successful and confident in my jobs, I need to: keep more accurate and consistent records, stick to my schedule, go out of my way, be creative, work on collaboration and get more involved.

More to come in the next few days! :)

4 comments:

  1. Hi, thanks for stopping by my blog!

    That sounds like it would be a really good book for me. I have felt a little bit the same lately - just kind of like time is passing by, and I haven't made the most of it! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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  2. I keep meaning to read that book, I think it could be really good for me.

    I'm totally with you on the friendship part. I'm at a point in my life where I don't have a lot of close friends and I know it's wearing on me. I need to get out there!

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  3. Thanks for the book idea! I'll add it to my list at goodreads.com!

    Also, THANK YOU for the digital scrapbooking websites! Ah, I'm SO excited and honestly didn't know these even existed!

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  4. That book is on my next to read list. :) I need a little inspiration :P

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