"The Happiness Project"

Happiness atop Mt. Spokane

One day while browsing thru my libraries digital books I came across "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin.  Finding more joy is something I have been thinking about so the title captured my attention.  The idea of a Happiness Project intrigued me and I liked the book so much I bought my own copy because I was itching to highlight my favorite thoughts.

Gretchen's Happiness Project takes her a year to complete. She put months of thought into it before she began her project and came up with a theme for each month and specific goals to focus on.  She began her project in January but I don't think I want to wait until January rolls around to begin.  I am thinking of starting mine in August when I turn the big 4-0.  I'm hoping it will gibe me something positive to focus on besides the fact that at age 40 I could be halfway through my life.

During this planning stage I have come up with a few themes I want to focus on but not twelve.  I don't actually know if I can come up with enough to spread my Happiness Project out for a year.  My other concern is that while the idea of a Happiness Project does sound appealing it may begin to fell more like work and I might end up ditching the whole thing after a few months.

My themes so far are: marriage, motherhood, spiritual well-being, exercise, friendship, emotional well-being and my relationship with food (particularly chocolate).  Still five more to come up with if it is to last an entire year.  Thankfully I still have time and so now I need to come up with goals for each theme.  But how in one month can I cover motherhood or marriage.  Both are a lifetime of growth.  Even so my heart tells me that it will be worth it because for one thing thats more than I am doing now. Being a better mother and a more supportive spouse is something I think about every day yet I rarely come up with an ideas on how to specifically improve in these two areas because I am so busy just trying to keep up with life from day to day.