I told myself that I would attempt to do this at the beginning of January 2012. So I borrowed it from the library today. I own the book but my dogs ate the first part of the book shortly after I bought it so I need it until I get to the uneaten pages.
The purpose behind it is to find out what makes you happy and what doesn't make you happy and to focus on the stuff that makes you a happier person. And it's different for everyone. It doesn't mean you aren't happy now. It just means there is always room for improvement. I don't think this will always be happy and peppy. I might rant sometimes and be grumpy etc... but sometimes even that ends up making me feel better because at least I'm not flipping out on someone and making them feel badly.
The author identified the following areas to work on for her (and each correlates with a month): Boost energy (vitality), remember love (marriage), aim higher (work), lighten up (parenthood), be serious about play (leisure), make time for friends (friendship), buy some happiness (money), contemplate heavens (eternity), pursue a passion (book), pay attention (mindfulness), keep a contented heart (attitude) and boot camp perfect (happiness). Twelve parts, 12 months.
And while you spend the month working on the main thing for that month, you also work on the stuff from previous months. And you get into the habit of doing all of this and continue it for life. Sounds a little naive but I am game to try.
I think my twelve for me will be (these may be tweaked as I go):
January - Boost energy. I feel like I am drained most days and end up taking 2-3 hour naps as often as I can which then means I have little time to do other things that day. Time to eat properly and exercise.
February - Remember love. Work on our marriage. It's not bad by any means or but everything could always be better in life.
March - Contemplate the heavens. This one will be started earlier than April because I intend to fully read the Bible by the time I am 30. That means roughly 3 pages a day. Maybe I'll step it up this month and double up? I don't know. I've always been really spiritual and feel it usually makes people better people to put God before themselves... and you end up helping others more if you do this too.
April - Live frugally. Scott & I have had 3 wonderful but extremely expensive years together and now is the time to pull back... a lot. So we can pay off debts and buy a house... in that order. So I am going to try to do free/cheap things and volunteer.
May - Keep a contented heart - attitude. This time of year is especially difficult as the weather warms and as kids get a little stir crazy not to mention saying goodbye to all the ones I've taught. I also need to worry less and realize that everything is not do or die.
June - Make time for friends. I think I do a great job at this but from January to May we are basically going to be spending $0 on ourselves or others to pay off debts. So... might be time to back pedal.
July - Be serious about leisure. I don't deal with downtime well. My idea of spending downtime is to sleep from like midnight to noon... what a waste of time.
August - Pursue a passion. Now I just have to figure out what. I have many passions and so little time. I'll have to figure one out and concentrate on it.
September -Learn to let go. It takes much to anger me but I am very slow to forgive and forget. I need to learn to do these things.
October - Get rid of fear. I tend to be fearful of ridiculous things. It's time to face some of them head on.
November - Be thankful. I am pretty appreciative of people and the things they say or do for me but I could always do better.
December - Focus on family. I happen to be part of 2 excellent families and it's time to step it up with both.
I also know that I have a little ADD when it comes to these things and may bop around. You're not supposed to but the overall goal is to live a happier life but not by doing GRAND things like buying stuff and traveling and essentially spending lots of money.
Good luck to me...
