New Years Resolution: Happiness
This year make a New Years resolution to bring more happiness into your life. You deserve it.
Keeping resolutions can be difficult. Here is a simple life hack which may help: Schedule 45 minutes of “Me Time” in your calendar at the very start of your day. During that time do something which sparks joy in you. For instance don’t just sleep in. You can fill the time with different activities every week or you can stick to one activity, it’s up to you. Be intentional about using this practice and hone in on the things which bring more happiness into your life. Be willing to experiment and change the activity if it’s not sparking joy.
Each day after completing your activity quickly write down three things in a journal. (1) What you did during your Me Time. It could be as simple as a word or two like “walked”, “yoga”, “exercised”, “meditated”, or “learned about ...”. (2) Note how engaged you felt, eg “excited”, “neutral”, or “low”. (3) Capture your energy from the activity, eg “excited”, “neutral”, “negative”.
Why are these steps important? By scheduling the time at the beginning of the day you are telling yourself that your happiness is a priority. And by putting it in your calendar you are giving it the importance and commitment of an appointment.
Start with a small success and build from there. After completing the activity in the morning you will have the satisfaction for the rest of the day that you did something for yourself. It may motivate you to set another personal goal for the day or expand your “Me Time”.
If 45 minutes seems hard to carve out in your day, just think of it as the time saved in not commuting into work. As we emerge from the pandemic this personal time should become a regular practice and easy to maintain.
Writing down what you did and how it made you feel brings both insight and accountability. Review your journal weekly to understand what sparks joy for you by the engagement and energy that it gives you and quite simply whether it made you smile. You will also be able to see whether you are keeping up with your commitment to yourself.
Through this exercise you will learn to take control over your own happiness. You will be successfully setting boundaries, developing empathy for yourself by getting in touch with what brings you joy, taking action and gaining insights to guide you to activities which truly engage you and brings you more energy. Enjoy the journey of discovery.
I wish you a happy, healthy and joyful 2021.
