I subscribe to a publication called Bottom Line Personal. It has not been particularly valuable until now. Gretchen Rubin (www.Happiness-Project.com) submitted an article summarizing several strategies that she has discovered for finding happiness. Several stand out:
Seek novelty and challenge even if you value consistency and comfort. "Example: Launching and updating a daily blog. Challenge yourself to do something that sounds interesting - even it it's different from anything you've done before or it requires skills that you're not sure you have. Take a class... try a new hobby...learn a language.. or visit a different town or museum every weekend."
Try doing whatever you enjoyed doing a age 10. I really don't remember age 10 but it might work for you.
Read memoirs of death and suffering. It's not that the author is happy that other people have been unhappy. It's just a way of appreciating everything that she has. It's kind of why we read all the bad stuff in the newspaper. We're happy it didn't happen to us.
Declutter your home. I enjoy getting things organized but I try to make it a permanent fix. It does boost my mood.
Be appreciative of people's good traits rather than critical of their bad ones..."be thankful for what they do for you, and stop blaming them for what they don't." She stopped getting angry at her husband for forgetting to withdraw cash before they went out. She takes care of it and makes it a point to be more appreciative of all the things her husband does like dealing with the car.
Enjoy today even if there's still work to do. "Many of us assume it's normal to live with limited happiness until some major milestone is reached--we earn that big promotion, have a family and retire. We tell ourselves, I'll be happy when I achieve my goals."
She's much happier now that she reminds herself to be happy about what she has accomplished even if there is still more to be done.
I'm generally a happy guy but sometimes I'm not. I'm hoping that if I document challenges I've taken on, how I've kept things organized, make a point of appreciating what others do for me and enjoying today even if there is more to do tomorrow, I will feel even happier.
For instance, last weekend Doris and I decided to go to Gettysburg overnight of Good Friday. I know that she was not thrilled with the idea. She had big plans to clean and cook all weekend but she agreed to go. We had a great time. I found a derby hat. It was First Friday in downtown so the neat little shops were open and we found something at each one either for ourselves or as a gift. We had a nice dinner at the Gettysburg Hotel. We had a really great room at the Hampton Inn. Saturday morning we had a very leisurely start, a pretty good free breakfast and then an educational and entertaining day at the battlefield. Maybe more museum than we needed but it was fun. Dinner at Esther's restaurant and home by 7 taking the round about route home. It was fun and hopefully a template for future adventures. I really appreciated Doris' accommodating me on several matters. By Sunday night some cleaning had been done and the anticipated cooking was finished. We had ham with asparagus and potatoes instead of NutriSystem. Still more to do but we were pleased with what was accomplished. Let's keep it up tomorrow.
