My Happiness Project: Stage 4

This is the final stretch of my Happiness Project – a resolution to explore happiness. I have been attempting  3 new tactics every quarter of 2015, and I invite you to join me!

After much deliberation, the final three happiness tactics are as follows:

• Audit & Assess your life – Book an hour or two over the next week. Sit down with a notebook, and be realistic about what a current week looks like for you. Track how much time is spent on different activities. Which of these activities do you enjoy? Which ones do you not? Are there activities which you love or find meaningful which you aren’t currently making time for? Would you rather have more time with family and pay a company to upkeep your home? Could you negotiate a swap with a friend (ie. you fix things up in their home, they cook home made meals for you) to do more of what you love and less of what you don’t? Question long held assumptions. Get creative. Implement changes.

• Meaningful work – Most people spend the vast majority of their time at work, so it is no surprise that there is a direct correlation with overall happiness. Every year staying in a job that doesn’t inspire you is investing 2,000+ hours in a draining experience. If you aren’t currently doing work you love, start taking steps to make a change.

• Giving to others –  Research has shown that doing things to help others can bring meaning and increase happiness, the magic number is 100 hours/year (or ~2 hours/week). Organize a regular volunteering session at a local food bank, visit an elderly friend who doesn’t have family in the city, or help a family who doesn’t have a car to pickup a heavy item they need. Look ahead, and schedule it in.

Over the past 9 months we have focused on: identifying 5 things we are grateful for (daily), meditating, removing one negative thing from our lives, investing in 5 meaningful relationships, exercising daily, creating a happy music playlist, disconnecting one night a week, making time for what you love, and getting 8 hours of sleep.

As I reflect on the past year, and the initiatives I have attempted, I have come to realize that there is a distinct difference between happiness (feeling based, in the present moment) and meaning (the bigger picture, incorporates our internal narratives around past experience and future projections).

I believe a meaningful life can be achieved through consistent intentional choices – both in terms of personal action as well as (perhaps more importantly) personal perception.  

For those of you who have implemented happiness initiatives – have you felt a change in your perspective? Be sure to share them below! What did you find most rewarding? For those of you who haven’t yet, consider trying your own  Happiness Project as your 2016 New Years resolution! I promise you won’t be disappointed.

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