2009 - The Year of Happiness

I've dubbed 2009 to be the Year of Happiness. This is something I do every new year in lieu of a new years resolution. It means I spend the year focusing on the chosen theme. Previous years have included the Year of Simplicity, the Year of Authenticity, the Year of Friendship, you get the idea. Great things have come out of this for me. I'm a better person for this effort (and it's a lot harder to fail a theme than a resolution!) This upcoming year I'll focus on promoting happiness in my daily life. I tend to be a moody person, never truly satisfied with my accomplishments, never one to appreciate what I've done but instead always pushing toward that which is not done. In other words, my world is like one enormous To Do list. Once an item is "checked off", it disappears immediately and all that remains are the items left to be completed, and that list is endless. Many have told me they admire how driven I am, that I'm a "doer", or that they don't doubt I could make something happen from sheer will and determination. But success is not happiness, this I've proven to myself. I also tend to be one that focuses too often on satisfying others before (or often instead of) myself. I am too into what other people think of me. I tend to make choices in my personal life for other people far more often then for myself. It seems so obvious writing this that it would be very difficult to be happy when you aren't making choices to promote your own well being and happiness, but things are always clearer in writing for me than my daily reality. The good news for me is that there's a new item on my To Do list and it's a doozy: "Be Happy."