A few years ago I was briefly part of a book club of fellow Ned Mamas and I enjoyed it. The book club fizzled, but in our short time together I read several good books that hadn’t originally been on my radar. I really enjoyed The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I felt like it was important and something I wanted to do for myself, but I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to start it. I recently re-discovered it on my Kindle and started re-reading it. I asked Jacob to get me the audio companion for Christmas, so I have been listening too.
It has really been resonating with me, and I have decided to do my own mini-happiness project. I am excited to make time for the parts of my life that I allow to often sit on the back burner even though I would like them to play a starring role. I’m going to copy Gretchen’s structure (and some of her goals) and make a few behavioral changes each month in hopes of bringing out my best self. I will try really hard to keep it simple, obtainable, and measurable.
I have been working on a little project for the past several months that ties beautifully into one of The Happiness Project’s central themes for success, ‘Act The Way You Would Like To Feel’. It felt ‘meant to be’ when she said that phrase, as I have been doing a ton of research on that exact subject lately. I have had so many different things pointing at this basic message in my life, like flashing billboards, saying ‘walk this way’
For January I’m focusing on organizing, and energizing.
Daily Goals
- 10 minutes of tidying - spend 10 minutes tidying each day in order to avoid giant messes that spiral out of control and feel unmanageable. In this tiny space if the mess gets too out of hand everyone is immediately affected. We can’t move around the boat, or use our table, open the refrigerator, or get to our clothes. I think with just a few minutes daily we can get into some better habits, and avoid the bad moods that accompany a big mess.
- Go to bed on time every night - I rarely feel like I have enough alone time in my life. With homeschooling, and very few babysitters around after the girls go to bed is MY TIME. Sometimes I stay up until midnight just goofing around, but I always pay for it the next day. I am the type of person that really relies on 8-9 hours of sleep a night, and when I don’t get it I start to feel bad. I’m going to try and get to bed by 10:30p every night so I can get at least 8 hours before the girls get up at 7a.
- Practice Yoga - I always feel better when I do yoga, but I have not been doing much of it lately. I would like to fit in 2 or 3 practices a week. Eventually I would like to try and make it to a class or two, but for now, I will be satisfied even if it just out on the pier.
Projects for January:
- Organize the kitchen cabinets.
- Buy nets for the kitchen and girls room.
- Make chore chart for girls.
- Clean the boat so we can make a tour of the boat video.
