Can you believe that 2015 is nearly upon us? I can’t! This year flew by and was full of awesome things (getting engaged, getting married, fun trips, etc.) but I’m pretty excited for the new year. If I had to choose a favorite holiday, it would be New Year’s. I love how it feels like a fresh start, and I’m a big fan of making resolutions.
The problem with resolutions is that I usually fail by March. The problem with my resolutions is the lack of definition—“lose weight” or “eat healthier” or “do more at work” aren’t exactly measurable goals.
I recently read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, just in time for 2015. Over the course of a year, Rubin was dedicated to sticking to her resolutions, which focused on certain aspects of her life each month. She did a bunch of research on happiness and incorporated various studies into her resolutions (IE, working out three times a week, doing small acts of kindness for her husband every day, etc).
I am a planner, and I loved the structure of her resolutions for her Happiness Project. She broke the year down into a List of Resolutions, which assigned one topic to each month of the year (IE, family, relationships, energy, etc). For an entire month, she focused on this area. The idea was to achieve more happiness in that area.
To support the List of Resolutions, she had a list of Twelve Commandments. Things like, “less is more” and “be you”. These statements helped her remember the important things when she felt like slipping on resolutions.
The book was laid out by month (and a resolution to coincide with it). The format made it easy to read one month and put the book down. I enjoyed Rubin’s writing style, and found myself smiling at various jokes and anecdotes.
I highly recommend the Happiness Project. 5/5 on Goodreads!
I am not an unhappy person, but I would like to work on my happiness so that it stems from a place of being grateful for all of the wonderful things I do have. For this reason, I will be pursuing my own Happiness Project in 2015! My resolutions and plans will be posted tomorrow, and I’ll do a monthly check-in. Have you read the Happiness Project? Do you want to participate? Shoot me an email at lifebetweenreads@gmail.com!
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