This blog is going to serve as a personal goal setting (and hopefully goal achieving) tracking device. What is my plan? To lay out and accomplish 12 goals/resolutions in the next 12 months. Ideally, this blog would have started in January, but I didn't get a chance to read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin until a few weeks ago, which is where I got this idea. If you haven't read it, I would definetly recommend it. Although it may sound like a typical self-help book, the book is not so much "self-help" as an inspiration for readers to create their own ideas about how to improve their own happiness. I found this to be refreshing, as many books of this genre tend to be a bit "You need to do A and B to accomplish C, and that's it".
In her book, Rubin spells out 12 goals that she wishes to accomplish in 12 months, while utilizing tips and theories from her extensive research and reading in the subject of happiness (ie. what it is, how we attain it, and how we maintain it, etc.). I would like to say upfront that I do not plan on committing much time to researching the subject of happiness. As a masters student, I already spend a lot of my time researching and will be using this blog as more of a personal timeline rather than a review of any literature. Oppositely, I won't completely discount the possibility of some research making its way into this blog as I often find myself searching through articles and books in my spare time ...
What does happiness mean to me?
I feel that, before delving into a project to improve my overall happiness, it would be good for me to define happiness as I believe it to be. Upon further reflection, I am not sure that I can appropriately define happiness. I can list certain things that make me happy such as finishing a work out, knowing I've done a good job at something at work/school, spending time with my best friends, getting along with and spending time with my family, and the feeling I get after an afternoon spent volunteering. I associate "happiness" with the aforementioned events, and with feelings of positive affect (affect is defined as our experience of emotion) such a joyfulness and warmth. However, it appears that overall, I may not have a great handle on the definition of happiness. But I digress ... perhaps this will be better sorted out as I continue to work on my project.
What are my 12 resolutions?
I'm still figuring those out ... I'm planning to spend some more time finalizing my goals, and choosing resolutions that I both want to work on, and need to work on. As such, I will address all my shortcomings and areas for improvement in the next post!
Susan
