The Happiness Project

One of my favorite personal-improvement bloggers, Alex Shalman, recently had a series of posts that he called The Happiness Project. Basically, he asked several of his favorite bloggers and authors to answer a few questions related to their happiness. Then he posted their answers over the course of the month. I found the interviews to be thought-provoking and uplifting. So, when Alex invited his readers to join in, I jumped at the chance.

See my thoughts about happiness below, and visit The Happiness Project to learn more about Alex and his provocative ideas regarding self-improvement.


How do you define happiness?

Happiness for me is a present sense of satisfaction as well as a feeling of hope for the future. Happiness can range from a warm sense of well-being to a glowing feeling of euphoria.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your happiness now, versus when you were a child?

I would rate my happiness as a child and as an adult around an 8 or 9. I've always been a happy person, which is highly improbable given my genes and the way my life started. My mother, my maternal grandmother, and my maternal grandfather all suffered from depression. My mother committed suicide when I was three years old.

Luckily, I seem to be hard-wired to be happy. I attribute a great deal of my propensity towards happiness to a healthy, positive upbringing with my father. He discovered the power of positive thinking and affirmations in the seventies and taught me those life skills as he was learning them. Then he married a very funny woman who is one of my best friends today. There was a LOT of laughter in my house growing up.

The only time that I've experienced the sense of helplessness and despair faced by my mother and her parents was when I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 38. But I bounced back quickly from that bombshell once I had a plan of action to conquer the disease. In fact, the diagnosis later helped me re-prioritize my life plans, and I started my Professional Organizing business soon after I completed cancer treatments.

What do you do on a daily basis that brings you happiness, and how consistent is the feeling of happiness throughout your day?

I am consistently happy throughout the day. I really enjoy being busy and having routines and productive habits. I like to rise before 6:00 a.m., eat a healthy breakfast, exercise, pull out my ACTION folder, and plan my day.

I get immense pleasure from teaching people how to be better organized and more focused. It's great fun to grow a business by providing a service that so many people need. I can honestly say that I love to help people sort through their clutter, develop filing systems, and color-coordinate their closets. Yep, I'm weird that way. Only another neat freak would understand.

In my "down time," I enjoy laughing with friends, riding my bicycle, reading non-fiction (history, business, personal development), or surfing the web in the office I share with my husband. But the best part of each day is when I curl up in bed with a book and my sweet dog, Ruby, jumps up on the bed and lays her head on my feet. It happens every night, and it never ceases to put a smile on my face.

What things take away from your happiness? What can be done to lessen their impact or remove them from your life?

The things that take away from my happiness include not scheduling enough time for exercise, and saying "Yes" to too many commitments at once. I also get frustrated when I don't schedule enough time to write. I've recently said "No" to some commitments in order to help me carve out that time for exercising and writing. I'm also hiring people to do more things for me so that I can focus on the most important (or fun) tasks.

Oh, and I try not to dwell on the whole cancer thing. It happened, it's over, I'm healthy now. Next!

What do you plan on doing in the future that will bring you even more happiness?

I plan on writing more because it enables me to help more people at once. For the same reason, I want to do more motivational speaking. Public speaking is something that I really enjoy (another one of my freakish qualities). There's a great high that comes from making people laugh while you're helping them learn new skills.

And for the really long term, my husband and I are quickly becoming debt-free and are saving as much money as possible so that we'll be able to retire in our 50's. I personally love to work, but I want the option of only doing work I love and then only working when I want to. Now, that's my idea of happiness and personal freedom!

31 Days of Self-Congratulations

It's New Year's again and all the magazines and newspapers are talking about New Year's Resolutions, those daggum lists that are supposed to magically fix all that's wrong with us. Now, I've got nothing against goal setting. Heck, I THRIVE on setting and reaching my goals. But how about we try something a little different this year?

My good friend and founder of Hatch life coach program, Melissa Grossman, has come up with a cool alternative to New Year's resolutions that is life-affirming instead of self-hating. She's "triple-dog daring" us throw out those resolutions and, instead, make a list of the good stuff from 2007. Instead of making promises to ourselves that we probably won't keep anyway, she's proposing that we highlight the positive things we accomplished during the past 12 months.

Here's how it works. Go to her blog, 31 Days of Self-Congratulations, and name 31 positive things about yourself, one for each of the 31 days of January. You can post a new accomplishment every day or, if you think you may have a hard time posting daily, you can post your whole list of 31 at once by using the "Share your 31" link at the top of the blog. Feel free to name something as small as helping a kitten out of a tree or as big as having the guts to start a new business.

I decided to take this challenge and am going to try and post everyday. I've already got my list made out and, let me tell you, it was fun to write. At first I had a hard time remembering enough good deeds and accomplishments from 2007. But the more areas of my life I considered, the easier it got. I think I'm going to enjoy this challenge a lot more than trying to give up dessert and cussing (as if!).

Now, you're not going to back down from a triple-dog dare, are you? Head on over to 31 Days of Self-Congratulations and don't be modest. I'm sure you can come up with at least 31 good deeds and positive attributes for yourself. While your at it, check out the site for Hatch, Melissa's one-to-one coaching services. She's a heck of a Life Coach and, if you're a single gal or a freelancer, she'll help you add to your self-congrats list for 2008!

Getting Unstuck

Do you ever get stuck when trying to reach a goal?

You've probably been there before. I know I have. You may be crystal clear on what you want your final outcome to look like. It weighs heavily on your mind, and you may even think about it daily. Yet, like a car stuck in the mud, you just can't seem to propel yourself forward.

I was talking to one of my organizing clients recently and she commented that she's been thinking about redoing her home office "forever." She said that she's spent months thinking about the changes she wants to make and the ways the office could serve her better. Yet, day after day, she comes into that same old office and changes nothing. Here are some ideas that I gave her to pull her out of the mud and into action.

* Get a clear idea of what you want the final outcome to look like. Literally, write down a detailed description of your goal. I'd also suggest creating a Vision Board where you take a piece of paper or poster board and paste on it pictures depicting your final outcome. In this client's case, she could cut out pictures of office furniture she likes, draw a diagram laying out a more efficient space, and attach up some paint swatches with new colors. This fun step may be just what you need to jump start your project.

* Break up big, overwhelming goals into a series of smaller projects. I define a project as any task requiring more than one action. My next suggestion, therefore, is to make a list of all of the projects that need to be completed in order to get to your final outcome. In the home office example, the list may include such tasks as (1) Move out, donate, or sell old office furniture, (2) repaint room, (3) buy new furniture.

* Make a list of the NEXT ACTIONS you will take to tackle those smaller projects. Those of you who have read David Allen's "Getting Things Done" will recognize this key step. Consider keeping a NEXT ACTIONS folder or list that you refer to daily (or in my case, several times per day). This list will keep you focused and help you figure out the best way to use your time and energy. For example "Repaint Room" can't happen until you a) pick out a paint color, b) buy the paint and brushes, c) clear out the furniture, d) clean the walls. Items a-d are examples of NEXT ACTIONS.

* Complete one of your NEXT ACTION items. Once you've completed one item, complete another, then another. Suddenly, you'll realize that you're not stuck anymore and inertia will be replaced with momentum.

Now I'm going to take some of my own advice and complete some of the NEXT ACTION items for my Creative Order web site.