Let’s take a look back at last month’s Happiness Project focus.

Usually this is the part where I recap my goals and projects for the month and let you know how I did with them, but I’m not going to do that this time. Because, quite frankly, while I started out with great intent, I did not meet the goals for this month.

I’m not sure why I thought adding a career focus month to my happiness project was a good idea, at least not this close to the beginning anyway. The current state of the job market, lack of job opportunities in my area, and continued lack of response from applications combined to do the opposite of make me happy. In fact, by trying to focus on my job search more this month, I actually ended up in a depressive spiral (there were additional factors in play as well, but this was a huge contributor.

I did update and clean up my resume and cover letter templates, though they are still not generating responses. And so many store and businesses have closed in my area over the last several months that the number of openings is so small to begin with. I’ve been out of work for almost 18 months and I am so discouraged and frustrated at this point.

But I am continuing my happiness project in general, even though this month was kind of a bust.