Book/Reading - The Happiness Project

I thought it was about time for me to provide an update on what I am reading (it is after all one of the elements of this project!). Currently it's Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project", which was, as previously mentioned, recommended to me by my friend, Emma. 

Emma first talked about the book to me when she was reading it, then kindly sent it to me once she finished - its the kind of thing her and I are constantly discussing and we both find very interesting. Obviously the book is of great interest to me now that I'm writing the blog - I just wish I had picked it up sooner! 

I'll be honest, I found it a little difficult to pick up and start reading, but that may have been because I was trying to do a very similar thing myself. One of my first reactions to the book were "I wish I could run my project and write about it without working a 50 hour+ week on the side". That aside, I am loving some of the tips, the de-cluttering is something Alex and I really need to do, but it just seems to stay on the to-do list, which is actually another aspect of her project. One of my favourite things about the book is that Gretchen Rubin refers back to "being Gretchen", which put simply means being true to who she is, not some ideal version of herself. 

I could do with doing a lot more of that. "Being Sophia" is by no means an easy task (all my own fault of course!), I do set myself up to fail a lot, then really beat myself up about it - I can be my own worst enemy! (Aren't we all?!). In part doing "The Challenges" has really helped me with that. Simple, targeted goals that are achievable. 

Reading the "Happiness Project" has also confirmed a lot of things for me in my own "Self Improvement Project". I have a full time job so my project needs to run differently. Research has to be done on the weekends. I very often write my blog posts at work during my lunch break, then send them to myself via LinkedIn (we can't access our personal email accounts from work), then actually publish the post in the evening (and I do try to proof read before doing so!) 

I frequently publish posts within minutes of each other - I have contemplated fining a way of timing it, but I'm mainly writing this blog for myself. 

I've just thought of something else I really like through reading the "Happiness Project" - being in an environment of growth will always make us happy, even if the emotion on a daily basis is not (e.g. I am currently always pushed for time since committing so much time to my Self Improvement Project and blogging about it, so I often feel stressed, however over all doing this project and writing this blog is making me feel happier - much happier actually!) 

This post has got a little long - I'll leave it there for now and report back on more findings from the Happiness Project at a later point!