I was recently given a book
by a friend called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and after hearing
about it online and then flicking through the book I was inspired to do my own
Happiness Project. If you haven’t heard of the book, it is basically about a
lady who was tired of feeling run down and miserable all the time, so she
decided to do something about it. She started off on a project that would span
an entire year. Every month was assigned a theme, and within these themes she
came up with a selection of goals to help her reach the happiness theme of that
particular month. It’s a really inspiring and thought-provoking book, so I
would really recommend giving it a read if you ever get the chance.
So, I decided that I am
also fed up of feeling sad all the time. Having depression makes life
incredibly difficult and, whilst I know I can’t cure myself, I can be more
proactive in my choices, which in turn could lead to an improved state of mind.
Conducting my own Happiness Project seemed like the perfect thing to start in
2015, so I started thinking about how I could do one for myself. I have decided
to use the same monthly themes that are talked about in the book, because I
feel I am able to come up with relevant goals for each of them, which are
personal to me. Obviously no two happiness projects will be the same, because
we all have individual challenges that cause us unhappiness and different
things that make us feel happy. But I felt I could relate the themes to my own
life and come up with a range of goals that cover all aspects of my life.
I thought I would make a
series of posts, over the next year, so that you can experience my Happiness
Project with me, and perhaps even join me and do a project of your own. I will
do a post at the beginning of each month, detailing the monthly theme and the
goals I am aiming towards, and then at the end of the month I will do a brief
wrap-up about how I have got on over the last month and reflect on how the
project is going.
So we have now come to the
end of February and I thought I would have a quick chat to you about how I’ve
got on with this months goals, which were as follows:
Send a random text to a friend who is struggling at
least once a week
This is something that
comes fairly naturally to me, as I’m a big texter! But I wanted to try and be
the instigator, rather than just replying to texts already sent to me, so this
month I have tried to be the one to send the first text to people a bit more
and I think I’ve done a fairly good job of it. Obviously there is always room
for improvement, but I’ve tried really hard to contact people I know are having
a more difficult time, and it’s nice to know that I have hopefully brightened
their day a little bit. It’s definitely something I want to continue over the
next few months.
Do an RAOK at least once a month
Again, this is something I
tend to do fairly regularly anyway, but I wanted to motivate myself to do it on
a regular basis. For those of you that don’t know, RAOK stands for Random Act
of Kindness, which basically does what it says on the tin! This month I managed
my RAOK by making a happy scrapbook for a friend going through a difficult
time. I really enjoyed making it, putting thought into what might make someone
else happy, and it was lovely hearing from my friend when she received it. She
told me she really liked it and that it really cheered her up, so I would say
that is mission accomplished!
Every week write down two things I like about myself
I must admit this has been
the most difficult task this month, but then I knew that would be the case. I’m
just not very good at finding good things about myself! But I really have
tried. A friend sent me this cute notebook and I decided that I would use it
for this task, so every weekend I sat down and tried to think of two good
things that I liked about myself. Some weeks I couldn’t think of any, but I
tried not to put too much pressure on myself and just came back to it another
day, and overall I’ve managed to write down a few things. I definitely want to
try and keep this idea up because it’s really nice reading back through the
notebook when you’re feeling low, and just think what it would be like to have
a completely full notebook!
I’ve also had a go at
keeping up with my other goals from January, which has been going fairly well,
although I’m still yet to tidy out my wardrobe – I’ll get there one day!
So there we have it. Three
different goals I’ve worked on this month. I’ve really enjoyed having some
goals to focus my energy on and I’ve found doing it this way a lot more
achievable than if I just set myself some general New Years resolutions. If you
would like to take part in your own Happiness Project and happen to take any
photos as part of it, please use #JensHappyProject so I can check out what
you’ve all been up to!
Have you read The Happiness Project?
Do you have any goals you’ve achieved this month?
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