What I Learned About Enjoying the Process, Living with Intention, and Doing It Now

Last week I decided that I would try to focus on three goals each week from my 12 Personal Commandments that I made after reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I've referenced the book a lot in earlier posts, and if you haven't checked it out yet, you should! http://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Project.

For the past week (Saturday-Saturday), I focused on three goals from my 12 "Commandments" of happier, simpler living:

5. Do it Today.
6. Live with Intention.
7. Enjoy the process.

This morning I took some time to reflect on what stood out and what I learned as I tried to be more mindful of these three goals. Here are the 10 things I came up with from my week's learning. They get a little wordy (sorry, I've apologized for this earlier - my love of lengthy writing!), but stick with me:

1. Do it now really does work! Clean the kitchen counters after every spill and do the dishes as they come (don't let them sit long!). This is such a simple source of happiness and reduced clutter.

2. Protein makes me feel better than sugar or even a caffeinated drink (this one is hard for me to believe, still!). I have been following a higher-protein, higher healthy fat, lower carb way of eating since watching the documentary Fat Head(much better than it sounds) and reading the book Protein Power by Drs. Eades. I used to be a chronic coffee drinker (and still enjoy it), but I find that peanut butter, nuts and fruit, or an egg make my body feel much better.

3. Put away clothes when I am done wearing them (an ever-growing pile of clothes on the floor does not equal more happiness).

4. Enjoy what I'm still learning about marriage and my husband, and remember that I still have a long time to keep figuring it out! (And that's a great thing!)

5. It IS okay to learn by messing up first, just try to learn something for the next time.

6. Ask for help! (this is one that I also mentioned in my list of things I've learned on my way to 25) I've learned that my husband is a great person to ask for cooking advice and help!

7. Do what I don't like to do first. For example, cleaning old leftovers out of the frig - I am the queen of putting this job off, and then dreading it for days. It seems so simple - just do it when it first comes up. As Gretchen Rubin says in THP in her section on tackling a nagging task, "studies show that one of the best ways to lift your mood is to engineer an easy success, such as tackling a long-delayed chore". Simple, but true.

8. I like using and reading on my computer, and that's not all bad, as long as I'm mindful of what I'm replacing to be on my computer.

9. Sunday was a great "day of rest" from my computer. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed NOT checking my email, blog, or anything else for the day yesterday. I enjoyed all the other things I had time to do, and enjoyed good conversation with Ben.

10.Enjoy the simple, little things: cold beer after a busy day, being able to walk down the block with Ben to get ice cream from a local ice cream shop in the evening, saving money, spontaneous unplanned moments, and eating homegrown food.

Again, I'm sorry for all the wordiness, but many of these begged for me to explain (at least in my mind!). This week, my three goals are:

8. Identify the problem.
9. Give it a try! (And be willing to fail along the way)
10.Give freely.

Here goes!