The Happiness Project ~ This book is most likely one of my favorite of all-time. Something in Gretchen’s writing style and honesty just appealed to me. I loved how dedicated she was to research happiness and share her findings. I totally enjoyed what she focused on and what allowed her change during her yearlong happiness project. Like me, she wasn’t really unhappy but rather just want to improve areas of her life that weren’t up to the place she wanted them to be. This book was the push I needed to help me organize and focus on making changes in a realistic manner that felt unthreatening and doable.
A few months before 2017 ended I had made up my mind that I wanted to be more intentional with my life and time during 2018. I spent some time thinking about different areas of my life and created some broad strokes to help guide me. This was all in my mind of course. I didn’t really put anything down on paper. Enter The Happiness Project which helped me to put teeth and feet to those lofty ideas floating around in my brain.
{ONE} The Blog
One area of my life that I wanted to manage better was my blog. I have gone back and forth with stopping but I think that really centered on the fact that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to accomplish. I felt like I was just following other bloggers around and hoping I’d become them in some form or fashion. But friends, that is not at all what this life is made up to be. That fact led me to the place where I decided to create this space into what my heart and mind had always wanted it to be. I decided to share more of my struggles, my thoughts and of course, my faith. So I continue to work on my own content and develop that more fully.
{TWO} Living My Commandments
As I’m tracking with My Happiness Project, I want to be intentional to share a recap each month of how My 12 Commandments actually fleshed out and areas I tried to focus on during the month. Having said that, I didn’t actually finish The Happiness Project until January was already under way. Then I tried to get myself focused and organized to make January really productive but instead I let my commandments ruminate in my heart and tried to live them out. When I was unsure of something, I thought *Be Carrie and that gave me confidence. When I was tempted to think ill of someone or a situation I remembered *Don’t make assumptions. Thinking about *Be defined by God, not the world gave me the courage to write this post. And so it goes…
{THREE} Being Crafty
I did make a list of things of want to pursue learning this year. January allowed me to begin that pursuit. I made some cupcakes and decorated them. I also purchased some knitting supplies and I hope to get started on that venture soon along with more cupcakes and cake balls. I wrote a post about it here.
{FOUR} Getting Published
One accomplishment I’m particularly proud of is finishing a chapter for a group book. I believe the launch date will in March. I will update as I know more. The title is In Her Shoes: Me, Myself and I.
{FIVE} Reading Books
What else was on my list for January? Reading books and man I even surprised myself on what I accomplished. The truth is this: it was cold and I wanted to stay in the house so I dug in and got some books under my belt for 2018. I’ll be sharing a few thoughts on what I read, which are not really reviews per se.
What’s next…
Well, what’s on tap for February? I’m planning to work on cupcakes and cake balls. I hope to share them with my co-workers on Valentine’s Day. I decided to sign up for a mentor through my church. I think having a more mature Christian woman in my life right now would be helpful. I’m going to try and start some knitting. Oh and I promised my friend, Tabitha, that I would go to yoga with her. It’ll be fun!
You know how February is all about love, right? Well, I think a loving thing I can do is to reach out to some people and try to start some new dialogue or maybe make amends if need be. This falls in that area of *Do what is right.
I’ll keep you posted…
Be blessed~ Carrie
Where I’m linking up.
