Planning: Where to Start?

16personalities.com

My happiness project blog has been inspired, as you might recognize, Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project.  My first blog posts, I imagine, will probably be about how I’m setting up my own Happiness Project, because I honestly have very little idea where to begin.  I could just copy Gretchen Rubin, but I’ve never been one for just copying what others have already done.  I want to make this project my own.

Now part of this project, for me, is being completely honest with myself, and therefore on my blog I’m going to be completely honest with you, my reader.

I think the first step of a happiness project is to figure out what you think makes you happy, and what you think takes away from being happy.

I am a questioner, which means to me that I don’t meet expectations unless I personally approve those expectations (I’m not going to go out of my way to do something someone wants me to do if I don’t see the point).  That doesn’t sound particularly flattering, but I will readily admit that it’s the truth. I feel that in order to increase my own happiness, I am wired in a way that I must follow my own rules on how to do it. I know my project will look different from Gretchen’s, even though I’m not yet positive how.

I consider myself something of an explorer when I consider how I like to spend my free time – I love to read, travel, and learn, and everything I read, everywhere I go, and every new skill I learn, all of these things open more and more doors and worlds for me to explore further.  The world is an exciting place, with layer upon layer of new destinations once hidden, and new things to try always waiting just around the corner.

If you’re into MBTI, mine is INTJ, which you can read about and take the test by following the link.  I think that reading my results doesn’t provide me personally with any information: they are basically a summary based on how I answered a bunch if questions. This means two things. One, since I already know my answers to those questions having taken the test, I probably know myself reasonably well. And two, since there are such a large number of questions, the results are reasonably accurate. If you don’t know me, I do think reading those results can tell you about my personality, and in turn also provide hints about what might make me happy or not.

So that’s just a little about me.  I’ll be working on a plan for my Happiness Project, and I think knowing the above information about myself is a great step.  I already have some clues as to what to incorporate – things like giving myself more opportunities and ways to explore, ways for me to work on things that I personally set goals and expectations for. I think I must also find ways for me to face my anxieties and fears and remove some of the negative things I’m getting from them. My hope is that in my next post, I’ll be able to talk about some sort of plan for this whole project.  Until then, see you next time!

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