The Happiness Project

Have you ever read a book that left you feeling like you were having a conversation with an old friend, or a new friend, someone you connected with so well and could talk to ALL DAY LONG? Well, I'm a bit behind the times since this particular book came out in 2009 and then was followed by another equally great book and a sequel, AND a 107 (and counting) episode podcast, not to mention a website and more.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the memoir-esque tale of a woman who searches for happiness within her already good life by working on being a better person through personal goal setting. I wouldn't call myself a highly motivated person, but I am a goal setting person. I'm a person who sets goals, works on them for a week or two, tells everyone how well I'm doing, and then quits, just to start up the same goals a couple months later. I'm also the type of person who sets many little tiny goals to work on all at once instead of one huge goal, so Gretchen's approach of working on 4 or 5 goals a month that accumulate over the course of a year seems very natural to me.

My sister suggested I read Gretchen's books. I suggested all my friends read it too, because I love having people to talk to about things like books. During our after reading discussions many of my said things like, "Let's do Happiness Project." and "When are you starting your Happiness Project." and I thought I should at least write down my goals, maybe even set up some kind of monitoring system (because I also read Better Than Before and stocked up on sweet goal setting tips). When wrote down my 32n't goal I stopped to breath.

IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE for a person to be working on 32 goals at the same time? I'm banking on my goals being small enough that they are more like practice steps to a more awesome life; like I'm learning a little dance that will help me be my best self and if I don't get all the steps right one day, it's alright, the recital is a ways off. I have time for more practice.

Here are some of my goals. Promise not to laugh! I broke them into categories so that I didn't just have an unending list.

Daily Habits:

Drink more water / Eat more veggies

Workout at least 20 minutes a day

Shower

Hobbies:

Practice music regularly

Set up a book club

Make time for crafts

Home Improvement:

Organize / give everything a home

Create a laundry system

Stick to the meal plan

Build a minimal wardrobe

Relationships:

Call my family

Make time for friends

Plan date night

Plan play-dates for my girls

Personal Development:

Look for needs to fill for others

Stick to my task organization system

Rounding it off:

Finish the kitchen chores at night

Floss

Plug in my phone and check my calendar every night

So there it is. A little sample of my mini habits. I've never considered myself a gold star person, but I'm thinking a little chart for gold stars would be a nice way to see how I'm doing. Look for an update, and please let me know what some of your goals are.