• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Dear Sabrina

  • Family
  • Happiness
  • Life in Sweden
  • Beauty
  • Thinking
  • Miscellany
  • About
    • Now
You are here: Home / Happiness / Happiness Project Redux

Happiness Project Redux

March 23, 2021 By Jodi

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.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Related

Filed Under: Happiness, Happiness Project, Thinking Tagged With: gretchen rubin, happiness, happiness project, resolutions

Previous Post: « A Soft Restart
Next Post: Happiness Project: January: Self-knowledge resolutions »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

About Jodi

I just repatriated from Sweden to the US with my British husband and three young kids. I started this site while living in Sweden to build the conversations and community we've had with loved ones around the world, and to create a space to share thoughts about life, beauty, motherhood, and everything else. read more →

Connect & Follow

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Receive the weekly newsletter

* indicates required
/ ( mm / dd )

Recent Posts

An Intentional Summer

June 22, 2016 By Jodi 2 Comments

bicycles-in-rack-summer-day

The New York Times has challenged its readers to an intentional summer. Every week, they're offering a suggestion to set this summer apart from the rest of the year. The first challenge is to walk or bike somewhere that you'd normally drive, to make an ordinary trip a little more extraordinary. 

Winter in Sweden: the Basics

December 15, 2016 By Jodi 4 Comments

Fire outside cafe making for a cozy Swedish winter

It's time to talk about winter in Sweden. A while back I wrote about summer in Sweden, essentially saying that it's like heaven. And winter? Well, winter can feel like the opposite; or if not quite like hell, then rather like a long, slow slog uphill through waist-deep snow in the dark with clouds covering...

Read More

August's Haircut

December 29, 2016 By Jodi Leave a Comment

August after haircut

Last week, our neighbor, Agneta, pulled a coup we never thought possible: she got the boys' hair cut. We didn't think Leif would be much of a problem, but August has always disliked both change and any sort of meeting with a hairdresser/doctor/nurse/dentist/you get the idea. We had a rather tragic attempt last summer when we...

Read More

What's the Deal With Cutting the Cord?

March 16, 2017 By Jodi 3 Comments

Newborn baby holding parents' fingers

I'm curious—did you (or your partner, husband, baby's father, baby's other mother, etc.) cut the umbilical cord after you delivered the baby? It seems to be this momentous things that fathers (or one of the aforementioned others) are supposed to do. With all three of our children's births, James was handed the scissors at the appropriate time...

Read More

Categories

  • Beauty
  • Family
  • Happiness
  • Life in Sweden
  • Miscellany
  • Thinking

Follow me on Bloglovin'

Follow

Instagram

Footer

About Dear Sabrina

Welcome! Dear Sabrina is a lifestyle blog for the thinking woman (and man, if men read lifestyle blogs). I hope that visiting this site gives you something to think about, makes you laugh, or shows you something new. If you want to further connect, find me on one of networks below or send an email.
Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think. More about me…

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Copyright © 2023 · Jodi Elliott

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.