I just finished reading Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project" because I love to read books that I could have written but didn't. Since I am not particularly original, at least I can steal some ideas, right?
The saddest part is that I actually kind of do that stuff anyway - pick a theme of improvement for the month, list three focuses, blog about it occasionally, worry that I sound self-absorbed. I did not, however, have an actual checklist. Checklists used to be my favorite thing at the library when I was 15. Shelf reading was the most boring task in the entire reference room (examining a shelf to confirm that it remained in Dewey Decimal order, and if not, re-arranging the books to match). However, some genius page had designed a checklist with nice big boxes for your initials. You could draw an entire picture in that box - and we did. We felt possessive of entire shelves of books because you could create a multi-box picture that way. Even though shelf reading made your average high school student want to stab themselves with a golf pencil, the checklist made it all worth it.
So, I'm modifying my own approach. I'm making my monthly foci actionable. I'm going to actually print and carry around the checklist. I'm going to take great joy in coloring it in. It's the perfect time - the first of December, before all the January flagellants appear and state pessimistically that resolutions never work and why make them?
For December, I picked Exercise, Loving gestures, and Meditation. I have recently been slacking on the exercise, and just calling my two dance classes sufficient. Which they are probably not. So, I'd like to add some walks, some dance practice, some stretches, and on a daily basis, so that it becomes a habit.
Loving gestures means, well, being nice to Richard. It's easy to take a spouse for granted. So far I bought him a burrito after a hard, long work day, and I didn't get all snappy when he called me repeatedly at work today about passwords for things that I don't have memorized. This is the hard one.
And this is the boring one, again. Meditation. But on a chart!
The saddest part is that I actually kind of do that stuff anyway - pick a theme of improvement for the month, list three focuses, blog about it occasionally, worry that I sound self-absorbed. I did not, however, have an actual checklist. Checklists used to be my favorite thing at the library when I was 15. Shelf reading was the most boring task in the entire reference room (examining a shelf to confirm that it remained in Dewey Decimal order, and if not, re-arranging the books to match). However, some genius page had designed a checklist with nice big boxes for your initials. You could draw an entire picture in that box - and we did. We felt possessive of entire shelves of books because you could create a multi-box picture that way. Even though shelf reading made your average high school student want to stab themselves with a golf pencil, the checklist made it all worth it.
So, I'm modifying my own approach. I'm making my monthly foci actionable. I'm going to actually print and carry around the checklist. I'm going to take great joy in coloring it in. It's the perfect time - the first of December, before all the January flagellants appear and state pessimistically that resolutions never work and why make them?
For December, I picked Exercise, Loving gestures, and Meditation. I have recently been slacking on the exercise, and just calling my two dance classes sufficient. Which they are probably not. So, I'd like to add some walks, some dance practice, some stretches, and on a daily basis, so that it becomes a habit.
Loving gestures means, well, being nice to Richard. It's easy to take a spouse for granted. So far I bought him a burrito after a hard, long work day, and I didn't get all snappy when he called me repeatedly at work today about passwords for things that I don't have memorized. This is the hard one.
And this is the boring one, again. Meditation. But on a chart!
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