My Happiness Project - The First Step


While working through Gretchen’s Book, The Happiness Project, she mentions that one of the key things that kept her on track were what se referred to as the “Twelve Commandments”.  While I was working through her commandments I realised that I would need a few of my own.  These are the things that I will be embracing that will, I hope, assist me in me committing to my resolutions.  These would form the basis of my thinking and guid me and remind me of what I had set out to achieve.  So, you may ask, what has changed? You have made resolutions before and I don’t even need any fingers to count how many you have kept!  And how right you would be.  However I have seen that I have changed at least one aspect of my life significantly, and that is to get up early in the morning before sunrise.  And this I have managed now for just on two years.  Do I manage to do it everyday?  No there are days when I do oversleep, however these are few and far between and instead of giving up I persist.  This has given me great hope that I should do well with my resolutions.

Using Gretchen’s list as a starting point this is the list of commandments I came up with (some I borrowed because they are so universal).  These will remain on my person to remind me and keep me on track.  

My Twelve Commandments

  1. Be Mohammed
  2. Don’t sweat the small stuff
  3. Act the way I want to feel
  4. Do it now
  5. Enjoy the process
  6. Think before you jump
  7. Address the problem and not the symptom
  8. Do what ought to be done
  9. find the lighter side
  10. focus 
  11. There is only love
  12. Put your trust in the Almighty

In line with this I also cam up with my:

Secrets of Adulthood

  • There is always someone who knows more than you
  • Being nice will get you more places than what you know
  • You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time, even if you can fit the whole elephant in your mouth you still have to bite
  • It does not have to be perfect, best is good enough more important it must feel right
  • What is fun for others is not necessarily fun for you and vice versa
  • People like to receive presents on special days and like it even more when they don’t expect it
  • What you do everyday matters more than what you do once in a while
  • Do a little each day and you can accomplish a lot
  • Time is your most precious gift
  • Failing means you trying hard
  • No amount of training can change your nature
  • Therapists only tell you what you already know
  • There is nothing like a free lunch
  • Expectation is the mother of disappointment
  • Always iron your clothes using a press-cloth
  • All food needs a bit of Salt
  • An SPF 15 sun lotion is fine for everyday use 
So while the my Commandments form the basis that would assist me in living up to my resolutions, it is really the resolutions that are the heart of the project :-)

Points to ponder and share:

 What are your Commandments?
What are your Secrets of Adulthood?

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 17, 2013 at 6:20 PM

    Sometimes the only way to gain power is to relinquish it. You taught me that, most valuable lesson in a long time.

    ReplyDelete

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