Balanced Life -- Choose the Bigger Life; No Pressure Knitting.

I'm working on my Happiness Project, and you could have one, too! Everyone's project will look different, but it's the rare person who can't benefit. Join in -- no need to catch up, just jump in right now. Each Friday's post will help you think about your own happiness project.

I love visiting this blog's companion site, the Happiness Project Toolbox - it's fun to add to my own Inspiration Board, keep up with my own One-Sentence Journal (mine is a journal of what I'm reading), check my Lists, etc.

But I'm really addicted to the site because I love looking at what other people are writing. I can't get enough of reading other people's favorite quotations on the Inspiration Boards, seeing other people's Personal Commandments, and all the rest. (To see what other people have added, you can click on the Tools listed across the top, or on the "more" running down the right side.)

Today, instead of proposing one of my resolutions for your happiness project, I gathered six of my favorite resolutions from that section of the Toolbox. These are resolutions posted by other people that I'm going to start to follow myself:

1. Say "I love you" every day
2. Choose the bigger life
3. Read books with my children
4. Laugh with my wife daily [ok, I'll change this to "husband"]
5. Kindness
6. Put clothes away

I don't knit, so I won't follow the resolution "No pressure knitting," but that resolution gave me such a clear picture of that person and that happiness project! I laughed out loud; I know exactly what that means.

One note: I see that a lot of people have the resolution to "Drink more water." It's not clear that this is a helpful resolution. Maybe you don't need to drink more water. If you love drinking water, then by all means, drink water, but from what I can see, the benefits are quite overblown, so you don't need to worry about this too much.

We all have a limited capacity for sticking to resolutions, so make sure you're getting the biggest happiness bang for the buck. You'd probably be better off using your precious resolution-energy toward going for a ten-minute walk instead of trying to drink water.

What resolutions have proved most helpful in your happiness projects?

* Ashby Jones at the Wall Street Journal law blog did a two-part interview with me this week. We had a great time talking about happiness, lawyers, and career choices in general.
Part I
Part II

* Join the discussion on the Facebook Page. Lots of interesting commentary there.

 

 

Comments

[antaeus]

Thank you! Your interview with Ashby Jones should be required reading for every undergrad thinking about taking the LSAT this fall. For many among them the luckiest will be those who don't score well. There is a lot of opinion out there; little of it is as wise as your writing.

[timezone]

Love the tool box, Gretchen! I really do have to work to stay on task. Focus and follow through are my big ones. Oh, and inertia! It's so easy when there are so many distractions in ten different directions, but then one just gets more scattered. I did find getting rid of cable, particularly in bedroom, really helpful. Literally forcing myself to stick with something for ten minutes helps. Once I really get started, I find I can spend at least 15-30 mins on something. Forest for the trees. I think often we see all these things we want, or have to do, and have trouble just zeroing in and being in the moment, totaling giving our time, attention and love to this one thing. So I guess the two resolutions that are most helpful to me, when I can stick to them, is focusing and following through on what I want to accomplish.

[Arithrianos]

Really to me all the resolutions boil down to one, Kindness, to self and other, the other resolutions are only elaborations. Laughing should not be exclusive to spouses, laugh whenever you can, if you follow the #1 rule, be kind.