In my previous post, I mentioned that I'm endeavoring a Happiness Project again. I've written a lot of background about happiness projects, and why I find the idea meaningful—as opposed to mere frivolity––so I won't go into that again now. This time, though, due to some Black Friday margarita drinking*, I'm actually doing the official course led by Gretchen Rubin.
It's been wonderful—I dare say life-changing—so far.
A nice thing about doing this as a guided course is that there's a guide, of course, and also that she's done some of the heavy lifting (thinking) already. She determined the monthly themes (or focus areas), and my job is to set my own meaningful resolutions within that theme. Gretchen is very clear that there are no one-size-fits-all resolutions, and that what works for one person may be the exact opposite of what works for someone else. She gives general suggestions for what resolutions folks might like, but she certainly doesn't say, for example, that everyone needs to wake up at 6am to fulfill their human potential (any other mothers out there going crazy with all these suggestions that the only way to live a fulfilled life as a parent is to wake up when everyone else is asleep, before the sun rises??! I spent 7+ years not sleeping through the night, and now I'm making up for lost time).
The themes for the year are:
January: Self-knowledge
February: Energy
March: Outer Order
April: Friends
May: Work
June: Play
July: Family
August: Money
September: Love
October: Body
November: Awe
December: Onward
As you can tell, we're already nearly three months into this and I'm only beginning to write about it. I'll share retrospectively how it's gone thus far, and I'll share how it continues to go.
Let me be very clear about something: I don't actually think that you, dear reader, care all that much about my happiness project, or all of the details I will commence to share with you the next time I am drinking margaritas at night by myself while reminiscing on my happiness project. However, I found it incredibly engaging and instructive when Gretchen Rubin wrote her two books about this stuff, and though I am a very different person than she is, I took a lot out of those books.
So I do this in case someone else out there might find it engaging or interesting or useful or spark something, however small, in their own life that might make that life just a little bit better. Because being conscious about my own life has only enhanced it, and if I'm lucky, also the lives of those little people I share my days with.
(*Yes, a lot of the stories of my life begin with a couple margaritas).
Photos by Daniel Gonzalez on Unsplash.
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