Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
That's a quote from Abraham Lincoln: "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." I've made up my mind that for 2010 my resolution is to be happier. Not because I'm unhappy; I'm actually thrilled with the way things are going lately and am pretty happy these days, but I just feel like I don't appreciate everything I have and just how wonderful my life is, at least not as much as often as I should. Too often I dwell on the negative or have a bad attitude for really no reason at all. I'd like to change that. I finished reading Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project after I stumbled across her blog a couple months ago. I loved, loved, loved the book and I think everyone should read it. Her writing style is casual but intelligent and engaging. I loved all of her anecdotes and family stories and personal struggles during her year with the project. Needless to say she inspired me to create my own, and even though I finished the book over a week ago, I've just finished outlining it and had time to post. (Studying for the NCLEX-RN kind of sucked up all my free time for the past 10 days... I find out my results tomorrow.)
Basically to come up with what to focus on, Gretchen suggested focusing on what makes you feel good, what makes you feel bad, what makes you feel right, and where do you need to grow. I thought about all those things and determined some goals, and a different theme each month, to focus on throughout the year. Like Gretchen did, I am deciding to focus on energy for my first month. Since January is almost over, and because really these is one of the most important ones to me, I am going to focus on these things throughout my entire project. If I have more energy I can accomplish more and it will make the rest of my goals come easier. So in 2010 I am going to get more sleep, exercise (better and more often!), toss, restore, and reorganize, and eat better! I've been working on this throughout the month and have already cleaned (and cleaned out) my kitchen, laundry, closets, and bathroom from top to bottom. I've tackled a bunch of things on my to-do list, but somehow it just keeps getting longer. I've been exercising more and counting calories while keeping a food journal. I just need to work on the whole getting more sleep thing. And taking vitamins. And
Gretchen also came up with a list of commandments that she thought would help her with her goals so I decided to do the same. I did the same (and most of them are the same as hers because, like I said, I found her very inspiring).
1) Be Laura.
2) Act the way I want to feel.
3) Let it go.
4) Do it now.
5) Be polite and be fair.
6) Enjoy the process.
7) Keep things in perspective.
8) Lighten up.
9) Push myself harder.
10) Don't forget my dreams.
11) No excuses.
12) There is only love.
I'm excited to get started. Knocked a few things off the to-do list today, and hopefully I didn't slack so much that now I've run out of time for the gym, but we'll see. Having dinner with kellystar tonight so that makes me extremely happy! :) Later, skaterz.
Basically to come up with what to focus on, Gretchen suggested focusing on what makes you feel good, what makes you feel bad, what makes you feel right, and where do you need to grow. I thought about all those things and determined some goals, and a different theme each month, to focus on throughout the year. Like Gretchen did, I am deciding to focus on energy for my first month. Since January is almost over, and because really these is one of the most important ones to me, I am going to focus on these things throughout my entire project. If I have more energy I can accomplish more and it will make the rest of my goals come easier. So in 2010 I am going to get more sleep, exercise (better and more often!), toss, restore, and reorganize, and eat better! I've been working on this throughout the month and have already cleaned (and cleaned out) my kitchen, laundry, closets, and bathroom from top to bottom. I've tackled a bunch of things on my to-do list, but somehow it just keeps getting longer. I've been exercising more and counting calories while keeping a food journal. I just need to work on the whole getting more sleep thing. And taking vitamins. And
Gretchen also came up with a list of commandments that she thought would help her with her goals so I decided to do the same. I did the same (and most of them are the same as hers because, like I said, I found her very inspiring).
1) Be Laura.
2) Act the way I want to feel.
3) Let it go.
4) Do it now.
5) Be polite and be fair.
6) Enjoy the process.
7) Keep things in perspective.
8) Lighten up.
9) Push myself harder.
10) Don't forget my dreams.
11) No excuses.
12) There is only love.
I'm excited to get started. Knocked a few things off the to-do list today, and hopefully I didn't slack so much that now I've run out of time for the gym, but we'll see. Having dinner with kellystar tonight so that makes me extremely happy! :) Later, skaterz.