I love fresh starts and new routines. I love trying new things in an attempt to be more organized, save more money, stay on top of chores, and make the most of my time so that I have time to do the things that are most important to me.
I started The Happiness Project last year, and my goal was to read every chapter as it corresponded to the month for all of last year. The author, Gretchen Rubin, tackles certain areas of her life every month for an entire year. I loved the book so much, I had to force myself to stop reading the next chapter before the start of the next month. I got to about May, and then life kept me busy and distracted me from my reading.
We were moving August 1, and we spent the next few months trying to pack up everything that we collected over the ten years of living there, trying to do fun summer activities with our daughter, and trying to make the most of the last few months in our first home. Once we moved, we were trying to get as settled as we could before the start of the school year (my husband and I both work in education). Then the holidays came, and well life happened...and I mean that in the most positive way. We celebrated each holiday with festivals and gatherings with family and friends. We decorated, we shopped, we baked, we visited, and we entertained. As I mentioned in a previous post, we also experienced a tremendously sad loss when we said goodbye to our 11-year golden retriever. She was our very first dog that my husband and I had together. There is so much to say about this, but our sweet Rory deserves more than just a few lines here, so I will save her story for another time. After Rory's passing, Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went, and then the new year was here.
With the start of the new year, I started reading The Happiness Project again, and I am once again inspired to do the things that I truly love, and to establish habits that will help me to be a better and happier version of myself. Journaling is something that I've always done off and on since I was a little girl. I took a pretty long break with it, but then I started again in 2013 (still on again, off again), but I have kept up with it enough to know that taking the time to reflect on my life helps me to clear my head and to focus on the important things in my life with gratitude. I feel more centered when I take this time for myself.
After reading parts of The Happiness Project and writing in my journal, it occurred to me that there are a number of actions that I can perform every day or every week or even every month that will help boost my own happiness. With the new year, inspiration struck to create my own happiness project. Like Gretchen, I work well with concrete and measurable goals. Unlike Gretchen, I do not plan to be nearly as thorough as she was with her project. Not only did she do intensive and extensive research on the subject of happiness, but she created charts and lists of commandments and secrets of adulthood that she prepared before establishing what she would address for the next year. After all of her careful planning and thought, she knew exactly what she would focus on each month.
I am not doing that. I have not done any research. I have no idea what I will do next month, let alone what I will do in December. Instead, I am taking on small changes (habits actually) across different areas of my life that are important to me right now. For me, it is very important that I don't take on too much or set my goals too high because that is when my burnout occurs. I tend to burn out often because I make things too complicated, and I don't want to make that mistake with this. The list I created is for January and depending on how I am doing come February, I will make a new list or maybe I will just adjust this list. I know that in order for me to be successful, I have to be flexible and forgiving of myself. It's okay if I make adjustments to this list...as long as I do so for the sake of happiness. So with without further ado, here are the list of things that I would like to do right now:
My January List of Happiness
- Write for me every day for 30 minutes.
- Write something in my journal every day.
- Read for pleasure - from a book - for at least 20 minutes every day.
- Play (real imaginative play) with my daughter - uninterrupted and with no distractions (no iPhone, iPad, TV, etc), for at least 30 minutes every day.
- Run at least 1 time per week.
- Attend 2 yoga classes this month.
- Organize my closet.
- Tidy up every day.
- Make my bed every day.
- Clean something in my house every day.
- Get up at 5am at least 3 days per week and sleep no later than 7:15am 3 days per week.
- Be kind to myself and to others (it's okay if it's not perfect).
Not exactly earth-shattering, is it? I am sure plenty of people would laugh at this. Run only one time a week? Really? Two yoga classes...a month? I get it. I used to run 5 to 6 days a week and attend 4 to 5 yoga classes a week plus 2 to 3 cycle classes and a TRX class every week. Yes, I was insane, but boy was I fit! I was pretty happy too, so that worked for me then. But that doesn't work for me right now. Right now, I haven't been running at all. I attend zero yoga classes a week, so this is better than nothing. This is a start, and isn't this what this is about? Plus, this list is to help me strike a balance in my life. It's not just about one thing.
Thirty minutes of play with my daughter might not sound like much either. But these 30 minutes do not include the time we spend reading, taking walks, making meals and treats, going to the playground, etc. It is for actual creative, dramatic, make-believe play when we can pretend to be chefs or baristas in her play kitchen or have a tea party with her favorite stuffed animals and baby dolls on a blanket on the floor. These moments are my favorite moments in my day. I need to make more time for these moments. These moments are so precious and so fleeting and so special...for both of us.
I made this list exactly one week ago. I have modified the list slightly since then. I tried to follow this list, and I wasn't exactly successful. But you know what? Tomorrow is my birthday. So technically, my new year begins tomorrow. Think about it. Today is like my own personal New Year's Eve. My fresh start, begins tomorrow. And if I don't do all the things perfectly, that's okay. That's why I added number 12. Seriously, I added it just now, in fact. Because I tend to work really hard to do things perfectly, I often sabotage what I am working on and quit. I don't want that to happen this time. I want this year to be filled with great things. The goal is happiness, not perfection.
Curiously,
Beth
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