Monday, November 3, 2014

The Happiness Project: November

Hi all, I've just come back from a great weekend in Munich, and I'll definitely fill you in on that later, but for now, I have this post!

You may have noticed that it's been a while since I posted one of these.  I've still been keeping up with the book, but the past few months were pretty insane for me, and my sporadic blogging didn't really allow for proper posts on my Happiness Project's updates.  Tonight, on the flight back from Munich, I read the November chapter, and since it is only 2 November, I figured now was as good a time as any to get back into these posts!

I'm just going to skip over reviewing my progress on the previous months, mostly because I just don't remember!  That is what not documenting contemporaneously will do to you!

The theme for November is attitude.  I've been thinking about attitude a lot lately.  One thing that I think I've noticed about myself lately is that my attitude sort of sucks lately.  Maybe it hasn't come across on the blog very much, but while I am really liking this new adventure in Geneva, the transition has not been without difficulty.  And I think that has hampered my attitude a bit - not only in outlook but also in my actions.

I was trading emails with a former colleague that I worked closely with during my first year in Singapore.  He has always been very encouraging of me, and I like to think that we have a lot of mutual respect for each other.  Our email made me think back to my early days in Singapore, and although I always talk about how much changed in that two years, I guess I haven't really given much thought about how my attitude has changed.  But when I think about it, it wouldn't kill me to be a bit more positive nowadays.

Also, I read this post on gratitude earlier this week, and it really resonated with me.  A lot of times, I don't really get into this style of inspiration/stuff, but for some reason, it really stuck with me.  Sometimes you are just more open, I guess.  Anyway, I've also been thinking a lot about gratitude.  I mean, I know that I have SO much to be thankful for.  And so I'm just trying to keep that at the forefront of my mind more.

Attitude is something that is a bit harder to concretely measure.  But the book talks about a few things that Gretchen tried to focus on during the month, and so I'm going to adopt a few of those as well.  This month, I'm going to try harder to:

Laugh out loud - I'd like to be a little more lighthearted.  I can be super intense sometimes, and there are times when I can take myself super seriously.  And while I think that there can be instances where that is appropriate, I think I'd just like to be a little less of that.

Use good manners - This isn't "please" and "thank you".  It's more about being polite about other people's thoughts and contributions.  The book focuses on using better manners to be a better conversationalist.  I like this idea and would like to be a bit more mindful of what conversational patterns I have that aren't the best.

Give positive reviews - I am certain that former co-worker that I was emailing with would describe me as a positive person.  I don't think all people would say that.  But I'd like them to.

Find an area of refuge - The book likens this to a "happy place" that you can retreat to when you are in danger of ruminating on negative thoughts.  I'll think about it.

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