This year I want to be strong. I want to strengthen my marriage, my relationship with God, my body, and my emotional capacity.
A few months ago, I read the book The Happiness Project, which I highly recommend. It left me with a lot to think about, but one of my main takeaways was that "Happiness doesn’t always make you feel happy." Or in other words, to be happy, you have to do things you don't want to do. It takes hard work and discipline to read your scriptures, exercise, respond to whining patiently, eat with self-control, not criticize, pray with intent, etc.
I want more power to do what I know will bring me and my family happiness. And I hope I can access this power by strengthening the areas of my life that matter most.
6 comments:
Well said. I need to do better in so many ways! Happy new year!
I was just thinking about The Happiness Project and how I want to reread it to kick off the new year. Miss you!
Thanks for your thoughts on the book "Happiness Project"…I have had it on my Kindle for a number of months but have not read it yet. I will add it to my "read list" for 2013…maybe for January!
I'm with you! Also I loved that book.
Hi, Sarah! I'm so glad the post on my blog helped you. I, too, have read the Happiness Project. I thought she had some great ideas, but overall, her project was WAY too much for my personality. Why not have one goal per month instead of ten?? It made me feel overwhelmed just thinking about it. I have found that when I make tons of goals, I ALWAYS end up feeling disappointed in myself. This has fed my perfectionism and my eating disorder problems. Through counseling, I have learned to be so much more CONTENT with myself--not that I don't want to keep striving to improve in all areas of my life (because I definitely do!), but that I can love myself just the way I am and recognize that I am a good person who honestly tries my best every day. The more disciplined I try to be, the more I dislike myself (because I can never do it perfectly). Maybe that is just me, but I have let go of a lot of my delusions of being perfectly disciplined, and I can't tell you how much happier I am! I don't know if any of that makes sense, and I certainly don't want to discourage you from reaching for your goals, but I also want you to know that you are an AWESOME person and an AWESOME mom and the work you are doing with your son is so important--even if that is all that you "accomplish" in a day, it's enough.
xoxo
Sorry for the long comment!
Thank you for all your comments! And Rachel-- thank you especially for your kinds words. I definitely agree with you. There is no way I could handle doing a happiness project like in the book. It was her full-time job, for heavens sake. I'm pretty sure her kids were in school/daycare. Thank you for your wisdom about learning to be content. I think that is something I definitely need to work on. You are an inspiration!
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