Okay, so as I said a while ago, I started reading the Happiness Project again, and this time around it occurred to me that I should actually make some resolutions. If this isn’t the best time to do this, I don’t know when is. With a large amount of time about to be freed up in under 5 weeks now, I need to make sure that I’m working towards goals so I don’t fall into a void of emptiness where studying was.

Each month from now, ostensibly for the next year, I will be making new goals whilst keeping the old ones, and keeping track of how I’m progressing, and whether I am happier or not. Just a note before I launch headlong into this post - I thoroughly recommend reading Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project, even if you’re not that interested in starting your own, it certainly makes for interesting reading, and raises good points about how your level of happiness can affect all sorts of aspects of your life.

So, I have 5 resolutions for May. In no particular order:

DO IT NOW

Honestly, the amount of time I spend procrastinating over doing trivial tasks is ridiculous. I can’t begin to count the number of times I think “oh I’ll do that later” when it would only take me a minute or two to do it right there and then, or even things that would take slightly longer, but which I have plenty of time to do. For example, a few weeks ago I got new glasses, and after a couple of days of wearing them I realised I needed to have them adjusted so they stayed on my face properly. Instead of going to my opticians as soon as I got the chance, I waited around 3 weeks before getting it sorted out. For those 3 weeks it was a constant source of annoyance, and one which I could’ve sorted out quickly and with little inconvenience. Instead, procrastinating me chose to have glasses that fell off her face every time she looked down. This must stop. I started putting this into practice a couple of days ago now, and already feel better for it, because removing the nagging knowledge that there’s a task you keep putting off doing is really wearing at times.

SMILE

This is probably one of the smaller resolutions for the month, because I do smile quite a lot already. I think it’ll help at work though - sometimes I feel like I can be quite sullen and unfriendly, and it always helps to smile more.

STOP NAGGING

I don’t know if nagging is exactly the right word, but it’s one word which is certainly relevant. This is mostly a work related one. I have a tendency to focus on small problems and get too annoyed about them (more about that on the next resolution…), and choosing better what I say and when/whether I say it, will hopefully make things better. It’s possible this is more of an internal thing, because I was talking to Alex about this yesterday, and he said he didn’t understand why I’d chosen this one, but I think even having it as a reminder of remembering to pick my battles, then that’s something. 

ONLY COMPLAIN ONCE

This is a bad habit of mine. One I really need to break as soon as possible. I complain a lot, and I feel that it results in me carrying a lot of unnecessary negative feeling around with me on a regular basis. When something annoys me I complain to everyone about it - my colleagues, friends, boyfriend and parents, so it becomes not just “this customer who decided she didn’t want to buy something after I’d gift wrapped it for her”, but instead, “THE MOST ANNOYING THING THAT HAPPENED TODAY”. I dwell on these types of things, sometimes all day, saving them up so I can share my complaint with someone else, no one else is bothered about the stupid customer, but I let it ruin my day on a regular basis. A while ago I had a boss I really didn’t get along well with, and they were a constant source of frustration for me. Instead of just learning to deal with it, I spent many, many hours complaining to everyone who would listen about every little thing that had annoyed me that day, or week, or month. It wasn’t until they left the company that I realised how much time I had wasted complaining, how much I had let this person’s actions ruin months and months of my life, simply because I’d allowed myself to dwell on it for too long, and made it the main topic in every conversation I had. So I’m resolving to only complain about one thing to one person, if I need to complain about it at all. I’m also going to try and wipe out the small unnecessary complaints - i.e. “they ran out of the soup I wanted” (me, today…. I’m working on it). 

DON’T EXPECT PRAISE OR APPRECIATION

Another bad habit. One that Gretchen Rubin resolves to do in February of her Happiness Project. Too often I do things - like clean the kitchen or tidy up at work or many many other things, and expect someone to be like, “hey, good job!”. Most of the time I’m doing these things completely for myself, because I want to, but I forget that that’s why I’m doing them and expect someone else to show their appreciation of me. Not necessary. Now I’m just doing these things for myself, and from now on I’m going to remember it. 

So, these are the resolutions. Updates will occur on a sporadic basis.