As I mentioned last month, my most recent re-read of Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project has inspired me to create my own happiness project. And what better time to start than my birthday? Well, my birthday was yesterday, but I just chilled, so this is my official kickoff post!

My 55th year comes at a time when the world is in turmoil, when hate is in power and people are being oppressed. I want to challenge the forces of destruction and focus on joy and love. I will be tackling areas of my life that bring happiness and expanding them to further benefit me and the world around me. I want to maintain my strength during adversity and spread love to those in need of it.

I came up with 12 guiding thoughts for this project, phrases and ideas to help keep me focused and on track. Especially when I want to give up.

12 Guiding Thoughts

1. Be true to who you are
2. Believe it’s possible
3. Don’t give in to fear
4. You don’t need to be perfect
5. Small steps lead to big changes
6. Trust the process
7. Take a moment to breathe
8. Track your progress
9. Make it fun
10. Reward yourself along the way
11. Choose what’s right over what’s easy
12. Do it for yourself

I think that the areas of focus I’ve chosen are true to who I am and how I want to live my life. I’ve designed a spreadsheet to track projects as I complete them, as well as my goals. While each month will have a theme, some of the tasks will continue throughout the year (and beyond), so the tracker is set up with that in mind as well.

At this time I don’t have any rewards in mind, but that is definitely something I want to incorporate.

I mentioned above that each month will have a theme, here they are:

Monthly Focuses

1. Blog
2. Career
3. Sleep
4. Bake
5. Hygiene
6. Books
7. Clean
8. Learn
9. Cook
10. Garden
11. Movement
12. Community

I’m excited to see what this project will bring to my life.