happy friday!

friends, this past year i have been reading, the happiness project. have you read it? heard of it? it’s written by Gretchen Rubin and it’s based on,

“Why I {she} spent a year trying to sing in the morning, clean my {her} closets, fight right, read aristotle, and generally have more fun.”

there are twelve chapters in the book & this year, i’d like to highlight each of those chapters here on see jane blog.

on the first friday of each month, “happy friday,” i will introduce & discuss each chapter, starting with January and Chapter 1. I’ll give a little insight into what i was impressed with & what i plan on working on that month. I’d love you to join me, what do you think?

This is the type of book, that I read with pen in hand. by the end, i’ve marked up the whole thing, made notes, asterisks, exclamation points. in “getting started,” the first thing i underlined was this,

“…It’s like dieting. We all know the secret of dieting – eat better, eat less, exercise more – it’s the application that’s challenging. I had to create a scheme to put happiness ideas into practice in my life.”

love that. {remember, i am a goal-happy-kind-of-gal!}

Chapter 1 Boost Energy – Vitality.

In this chapter, Gretchen focuses on: go to sleep earlier; exercise better; toss, restore, organize; tackle a nagging task; act more energetic. She also states that, research shows, being happy energizes you, and at the same time, having more energy makes it easier for you to engage in activities – like socializing and exercise – that boost happiness. common sense, right?

I am following one of Gretchen’s goals for this month. go to sleep earlier. I love being a night owl because it allows me to accomplish so many things after my kids have all gone to bed, but while raising kids i don’t have the luxury of sleeping-in either, so i live on very little sleep at times. i also function alright on little sleep, but i realize for good health, i should be sleeping more. her book states, sleep is the new sex! ha! so funny.

another point Gretchen points out is, “start walking more.” i have always had this strange judgement towards walking. i expect myself to be running, so if i go walking i am disappointing myself. i will turn down a walk, just because i feel it’s not adequate exercise. and that’s lame. i want to focus on my regular workouts + walking more. especially since we are currently living in such a beautiful green, lush area of the country.

in the section under toss, restore, organize, gretchen says, people are finding their possessions truly unmanageable. we cleared out most of our clutter with our big move this year. but i realize, that since moving, i am still keeping a few items that we are not using & i need to toss or organize better. this is on my January list too!

it is by studying the little things, wrote samuel johnson, that we attain the great art of having as little misery, and as much happiness as possible.

the first chapter is packed with more goodness than i mentioned here. however, those are the two items i am going to focus on this month. sleep + organizing.

what will you do?

happy friday!
xoxo.

{image source. this is not a sponsored post.}