Month one of Happiness (or: One Month of Happiness) (Or: It's February)

So, I made it one month! If I had to assign a word to January to sum up the first month of my happiness project, I'd have to say: Splendid. Perfect? Nope - not remotely! Overall, it went really well even with the start of a new semester, frequently not sleeping through the night, and a case of mastitis (nursing mothers beware, not fun). I feel like this month I managed to make some sustained changes.

January's resolutions revolved around Order. It was a wonderful way to start the year. I divided my resolutions into two categories initially:

General Resolutions Create frequently. No new books. Shop local. Cultivate poverty. De-clutter. Wear my hair down. Put on makeup. Eat healthy. Be active. Give.

January Resolutions Make the bed. Clear my closets. Tackle a nagging task. Restore, maintain, organize. Use my to-do list. Identify the problem. Follow the “one-minute rule.” Observe the evening tidy-up.

By mid-month a few of the General Resolutions had been combined into January's, and some had to be dropped all together. One of the things I've learned about happiness - I must be both disciplined and flexible. I used charts to keep a daily log of which resolutions I kept everyday and I was most successful at:

• Implementing an evening tidy-up (which also led to a morning tidy-up as well, very nice)
  
• Making the bed.
• Tackle a nagging task.
  
• Using my to-do list.
• Creating frequently (sometimes this meant getting creative with dinner, sometimes it meant a knit/crochet project that could be finished in a day or two, sometimes it was a blog post, etc.).
  
• Wearing my hair down.
• Finally, by the end of the month I was also focusing on eating healthier and getting the baby out for a walk in the mornings.

I had to stop worrying about the "clear my closets" and "following the one-minute rule" resolutions all together. Those just weren't happening and I started to feel guilty for the lack of stars in those columns. However, instead of wasting energy trying to fit those in (especially as I started to get sick), I decided to focus on what was actually going well and make sure I kept it up. In the General Resolution's category I realized things like "shop local" and "no new books" were related to "cultivating poverty." And, "cultivating poverty" is really more of a commandment than a resolution so back to the drawing board on that one...

The week I got sick things fell apart, the dishes were piling up, the bed wasn't made, and I was *NOT HAPPY.* But, I learned from it. After a few days of letting everything go and being discouraged, I got over myself. Even though I didn't feel better yet, I decided to get back into my routine. An evening of reviewing my commandments got me back into the swing of things, I think. I remembered that I would "do it now and finish it," and even though I felt physically horrible from the infection I managed to find it within myself to "act as I would feel."

It worked, though it wasn't easy. I took one day to suck it up and stick to as many resolutions as possible. By the next day, I had gotten a decent night's sleep, the antibiotics started doing their thing, and order was restored. I also had a very neat realization through this process: There was a time when a set back like getting sick, or starting a new school semester, would have been too much for me to keep my resolutions going. So far this year, I have been able to handle those changes and stick to my project - Happiness!

Ok, I'm off to review February's resolutions. I'll post about those tomorrow.

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