My search of Happiness

Y’all I am almost 40 years old. I know age is just a number but after seeing Jennifer Lopez celebrate her 50^th birthday, I realized I needed to step up my life game. To be clear, I am very much aware that I am no JLo but a girl can dream.

About 9 months ago, right before I turned the big 3-9; I made a very extensive goal list. I planned to make this my best year yet. I wanted to be primed and ready to join the 40 club looking and feeling fabulous. Well I now have 3 months to go and I am not sure I can say with confidence that I have achieved anything on this list. I started a few things but I can't cross anything off. 

Okay, so we did have a major life change, we moved to Canada. If you know me at all (and if you don’t I am about to tell you) I do NOT like change.  I like to think I am open to new fun idea. However that is not the case, I am a rule follower, do what you are supposed to do, and I don’t color outside of the lines. I over think everything which causes me to be do nothing new. That was until January 2019, when my CEO asked me if I wanted to move to Canada and run a company they were about to purchase. I said yes because I didn’t want to let the company down; no turning back now.

The story of our move and that adventure is for another time. The reason I bring it up now is because it is easy to use this moves is the reason why my goals, plans, and dreams have not been pursued.  As they say, ( I don’t know who actually said this first) “If it is important to you, you will find a way.  If not, you will find an excuse”.  I don’t want to make excuses; I want to live a life happiness.

I am reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin for a second time. Full disclosure; at the time of me writing this I have only read a few chapters but that is not going to stop me from attempting my own Happiness Project. In the book she tackles one area of her life each month in order to see if she can improve her overall happiness. Like Gretchen, I am would not describe myself as unhappy but I always feel like there is more to life. I am always seeking the next thing and not really enjoying my life daily. 

Okay, I can hear the critics now, are you really enjoying life daily when you are planning out the next 9-12 months by setting goals and plans. Yes, I do believe that is my road to happiness and a living a fuller life. I understand that my goals and the goals of other will not be the same. I understand that some of my goals might seem superficial or silly to some people but that is the beauty of it, this is my path. Your path to happiness might be different, just like mine will not look exactly like the it does in the book.

For example I don’t have kids, so you might need to focus your attention in that area of your life. The Happiness Project book does have a section about parenting, if you want some more inspirations on how to tackle that area.

Here are some areas of life that I plan to cover:

·         Health and self-care

·         Attitude

·         Money

·         Work

·         Travel and Fun

·         Spiritual/Mindfulness

·         Learning

·         Giving

·         Be adventurous

·         Dream Project

As I move onto a new areas, I will not be leaving the previous month behind. The plan is to do what makes me happy and keep  doing it by add a new idea. I don’t know the exact order that I will be tackling these areas and I am sure some of them will overlap. I don’t know if I will add more or take some away.  I also don’t know if this will take me 9 months or longer but the only way to find out is to get started

First ups is health and self-care in August.  This is an area that I struggle with so I want to tackle this one first, while I am super motivated

Who is with me?