Happier You: May Goals

May will be a big transition month, which only makes sense that my Happier You May goals are focused on transitions. The word transition comes with a lot of pressure. Nobody likes change. Our bodies are practically designed to cope with change and to do it as smoothly as possible (i.e. homeostasis). So, when big transitions are upon us like moving, starting a family, or graduation it's important to cope with those transitions well.

All throughout your life you will always have transitions, some will be more difficult then others. My goal this month is to evaluate the role that transitions play in your life and to evaluate how I deal with transitions.

So, here are my Happier You goals for May:

move into a new building... this process has started yesterday and is definitely causing some stress. Not only is it hard to pack up all of your belongings and move everything (including your office). But, it is a reality of my job and the res. life lifestyle.

set goals for next year... I'm a huge goal setter and now that I have completed a year as an RD I have learned a lot about where I need to grow as a person, professional and grad student! So, I want to establish goals for next year and evaluate how I did this year!

research resilience... resilience is a hot topic in Student Affairs and is definitely something that I think everyone should have tips to be resilient. There are some great books out there that will be really helpful with this and I can't wait to share everything I learn with you all!

create a home... now that I'm moving into a two bedroom and two bathroom apartment, I will need to add twice as much stuff to my apartment. I've already started making some decorating decisions and I can't wait to create a warm and welcoming home!

So, wish my luck! I am hoping I'll do better on these goals compared to April. And hopefully at the end of May I'll have some pictures to show you all of the new space and place that I'll be in :)

Happier You: April Review

So, April definitely wasn't the best month for the Happier You blog goals. I think I struggled holding myself accountable this month and will definitely be adding these family goals to May's agenda! Anyways, here is a review on how I did for April!

surprise someone... I did manage to go home and visit my parents and (sister) once in April. It wasn't really a surprise, but I think my family was happy that I got off work and could come down so maybe I surprised myself!?

call a relative 2x a week... this did not happen, which I feel really bad about! My goal was to call relatives outside of my immediate family and catch up. But, unfortunately the pressure of closing and other things just made this next to impossible.

friends are family too... This was probably the goal that I did succeed on! I spent a lot of good and quality time with my college friends and my co-workers. I went to visit a friend in Virginia and worked on leaving the office early to spend quality time with my co-workers!

plan a family trip... this did not happen, but I did map out when I am going to go home to visit my family in May. The month of May is really quiet at work, so I am going to take three days off during the week and visit the best family of mine. I'm hoping to plan a family dinner while I'm home and cook up something scrumptious for my family to enjoy.

So, that is a review of April. Definitely not my best month, and I'm going to create a chart to hold me accountable or put in my calendar when I'm going to call people so that way I never become "too busy" to call my family members!

Happier You: Family

Last weekend was Easter and I got to spend sometime with my mom and dad for a little while. This was the first Easter that my younger sister, Brooke wasn't home. Too be honest, it was definitely a really hard holiday. I missed Brooke so much and the whole holiday didn't feel the same with her not being there.

Brooke and I have been talking a lot about how important family is. I love that we have been talking more regularly and I'm really looking forward to her coming home from college and us sharing the same time zone.

All of this talk about family and seeing a lot of my family members this past weekend have set up April's goal for Happier You quite nicely. This month, I am focusing on FAMILY and truly embracing all of my different types of family that I have been blessed with.

surprise someone... Everyone loves a surprise! So, I'm hoping to conjure up a surprise for a special family member and make them feel truly special this April! If you have any ideas comment below ;)

call a relative twice a week... starting on April1st my goal is to schedule thirty minute blocks in my week to call two different relatives every week. Now, I know most of you must think this is really easy for me to do. But, with working the way I do and going to grad school my free time almost always consists from the hours of 10PM-1AM and that is way too late to be calling relatives. So, I'll have to block time between work and class. So, stay tuned family members :)

friends are family too... I think this will be one of the best goals for this month. I'm really looking forward to spending sometime with friends and treating them like family. I'm not exactly sure how this will pan out, but I'm really excited to shower some love on friends.

plan a family trip... whether I get time off to go on it or not I would love to plan a family trip for my family. It might only be a day or a weekend trip somewhere, but I would love the opportunity to plan something for my family of mine.

And that's it for April! It will be a very busy month. I just found out that I'm moving in May, so I'll have to start packing and prepping for the move. But, life is great and it will fly by!

Happier You: Work as Flow Review

So, today I'm reviewing how I did on my March goal of work as flow! Now as I disclaimed in the original post I DEFINITELY did not establish work as flow during the month of March. But, I did complete a number of items on my goals list. Check out the original post, here!

My competencies... Unfortunately, I didn't really get to focus on my competency areas as much as I would have liked. I have specific areas where I would love to see more growth in, however I didn't get enough time to really make set action items to achieve in those areas.

The two main areas where I would like to see more growth in are:
- assessment, evaluation, and history (AER)
- organizational and human resource (OHR)

While attending different conferences in March, I learned A LOT about assessment and I'm really looking forward to incorporating some assessment into my current work as a Residence Director. I also feel like there is just so much i need to learn about human resources and organizational behavior. I can't wait to learn more about how organizations budget and make major decisions.

Work Life Balance... was a SUCCESS! I feel so refreshed from this month and I feel like I spent more time for myself. There were a lot of nights when I left my office early (i.e. not staying past 9PM) and went back to my apartment and just relaxed on the couch. I also got to take a morning completely off for my birthday, which was amazing!

Get Out of the Office... I held one official program in March and spent a lot more time just sitting in my lobby! It can be really hard for me to get out of "task manager" mode, but when I did I was definitely thankful. I got to quiz myself on my residents. The best part is that almost all of them knew who I was and they still think my apartment is attached to my office. At least they can't say I'm not present, right?

Student Development... I don't know, which theory I identify with the most, but they are all really interesting! I think Astin's Involvement Theory and Tinto's Retention Theory really intrigue me and constantly remind me why I encourage my students to get involved and to stay invested. But, I also love moral development theories like Kohlberg's!

Make Someone's Day... as I said in my original post, this wasn't really something I could measure. But, I tried to live every day being grateful and appreciative of my co-workers, supervisees, and residents. Some days were better than others, but I feel like for the most part I was excited for people and did my best to make people's days!

Love Your Office

Happy Friday friends! Today, I'm shaking things up... instead of writing about my five weekly confessions I'm going to connect with my Happier You Goal for March: Work as Flow and write about five ways I have made my office my happy space!

So, here is my office:

This office has experienced A LOT of change over the several months I have called it mine. To start with, I got new office furniture back in October and new carpet! I still miss the random assortment of mismatched furniture! But, you really can't complain when you have a wrap around desk, beautiful bookshelf, and a ton of file/storage space!

Anyways, once I had all my new furniture in place I officially got to decorate, which will lead me into the first way to make your office your happy space!

JOY INSPIRED DECORATIONS

Happiness researchers suggest that you fill your office space with bright and colorful hues! As well as filling your walls with things/people/memories that mean something to you. If you have photos of loved ones or artwork made by your children, don't leave it at home! Instead create a fun collage, which will not only make your office more welcoming, but will bring you joy while you work. 

My favorite forms of decor are positivity quotes, pictures of flowers from Austria (I'll take real ones too, if you want to send them), cards from different people, pictures of my staff, family, and friends, and various awards or degrees earned. Sometimes, I look around my office and I think "I have way too much stuff on the walls," but I can genuinely say everything has special meaning and purpose! 

Some of my favorite positivity quotes are: 

"Let your smile change the world, but don't let the world change your smile"

"it always seems impossible until its done" 

"for a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin-- real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be gotten through first. Some unfinished business. Time still to be served. A debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective had helped me to see their is no way to happiness. HAPPINESS IS THE WAY"- Souza 

"You create beauty with your attitude, your behavior, your actions. It's all up to you"

ORGANIZE IN YOUR OWN WAY

I feel fairly confident that if something were to happen to me and I couldn't work someone could come in and learn my system. I have my files clearly labeled. But, everything undoubtedly has a home in my office. I put my housing rosters in the same middle slot on my desk. I keep one on one notes in folders right by my computer. I keep meeting agendas in the cabinet to my left. My snack drawer is the second drawer down on the right (shush, don't tell anyone). Every thing has a space. Now, my office isn't always a beacon of organization. But, I like to organize in my own way! 

BE OKAY WITH CLUTTER

I've been in a number of different offices and I must say the ones that are the most inviting aren't always the ones with the most organization and the least amount of clutter. I've found that having "healthy amounts" of clutter are good for the soul. For example, I have a single vanilla spice tea bag on my desk (unused) and I really should just take it to my apartment. But, there is something about the tea bag that just makes it feel cozy and warm. One of my RD friends, Aaron has this file cabinet industrial piece of furniture that always draws my attention when I go into his office. For awhile, I felt critical about the mismatched furniture. But, now I have grown to love and appreciate it. The cabinet is full of various prizes that may look ordinary to others, but are extraordinary to him.

MAKE A HAPPINESS JAR

Sometimes you just need a little inspiration, so a few weeks back I created a happiness jar! I had so much fun filling it with different positive related things. I put in quotes from my favorite authors, nice words from my co-workers or bosses, and cute little images! Its very comforting to know that the jar is always here whenever I may need it and it kind of serves as an interactive happy booster for me! (send me your favorite quotes to radiatingsunshineblog@gmail.com and I'll add them to my jar)

HAVE COMFORT ITEMS

In my office, I always have a variety of snacks, juice boxes, and a sweater for whenever I'm cold. The positive side, is my office does not have heating or air conditioning. So, I rarely need the sweater... but, its nice to have just in case! Another consideration for your office is having seats for people to sit in when they swing by. I have five seats and I kind of pride myself on having comfortable space for students to sit in when they stop by! Sometimes my office gets so full of people, it is kind of overwhelming. But, I'm glad my students like to visit. Light is also another consideration! Make sure you either have some natural lighting or lamps to brighten up your space. My ceiling lights work really well (i.e. they aren't too overpowering), but having a welcoming office focuses a lot on the lighting of the space.

If there was one thing I could change about my office, I would definitely add a window or maybe a window on my door. Without windows it can get very "closet" feeling, however I think I make up for that with my colorful posters all around my walls. So, there you have it... 5 tips I have used to make my office my happy space!

Happier You: Work as Flow

I can't believe March is already here!! Holy smokes this semester is really flying by. Anyways, today I'm sharing with you all Happier You's March Goals and that is work as flow. When thinking about my happiness project, work can often be a huge source of unhappiness and frustration. For a lot of people, work is just a means to an end. Many individuals don't find joy in their jobs, which is a true tragedy. Now, I don't know if I have found the job that will always bring me endless joy. Actually, my job on numerous occasions gives me the direct opposite of joy. Nothing breaks my heart more than one of my students not living up to their potential or a staff member who has had a rough day. However, as long as I wake up every day feeling like I am making a difference in the students' lives I work with... then every day I will wake up as a student affairs practitioner.

As I said earlier, March's goal is to develop work as flow a term from psychology of optimal experiences by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (I know quite the name). Now, I recognize that I won't be able to achieve this in one month... some people don't even achieve this in a lifetime. But, inspired by Csikszentmihalyi's work I will be working on finding happiness in my job.

So, here are my March Goals:

my competencies... There are 10 Competencies that NASPA has created for student affairs professionals (check them out here). My goal is to evaluate how I am currently doing on them. After I evaluate how I've done, I then hope to create a game plan for how I can grow as a professional in these competencies. Luckily, I have amazing co-workers and supervisors who can help hold me accountable and can give me insight into areas that I can develop in (so, bring on the feedback).

work life balance... hahaha February was not the most ideal month for work life balance. I think I went to the gym three times total (don't worry I walked a lot and did work out videos in my apartment-- I'm still sticking to my healthy goals from January). But, I couldn't even find an hour in my day to work out and practice self-care... Now, that's bad. I love my job, but in March my goals is to find more work life balance and still do it all!

I laughed A LOT at this meme. Add blogging and you have one crazy RD. 

get out of the office... I want to get out of my office and actually engage with my students. I feel like I have been chained to my desk and I'm missing all of the student interactions that I had when I was an RA. So, I am hoping to measure this goal by sitting in the lobby and quizzing myself on knowing residents on a first name basis and maybe some facts.

student development... is pretty much the whole reason I do what I do. However, I still don't know that much about student development and theories. I haven't taken the College Student Personnel theories class yet, so I think its time I learn some stuff on my own. My goal is to learn about three new theories and start incorporating it into my work.

make someone's day... should be my goal every day! But, this month my goal is to make either my student's, staff member's, or co-worker's days! Now, I'm not sure exactly how I will measure this (unless they tell me). But, I will still make do!

So, those are my five goals for March! Wish me luck as I discover work as flow (or try to at least).

Happier You: February Review

 

A month dedicated to love... and what a beautiful month it was! I honestly can't believe February is over. I'm partly sad that this month went by so quickly and excited that the RD Selection process is slowly coming to an end. Anyways, here is how I spent a month dedicated to love. 

LOVE... 

my whole self... this month I focused on loving myself. I worked on loving my flaws and being less self-critical. I committed to working out (despite the cold months) and eating healthier (hello salads in a  jar). Overall, I think I would give myself an B+ for the work that I put in to loving myself. 

write more letters... yes! And positive notes! I did a really good job this month with my letter writing. I think I sent two letters to family. Two to Josh. And wrote a bunch of little notes and kind thoughts to my co-workers. I also got to try out my calligraphy and really find my inner-style!

old-fashioned dating... this was kind of a cop out, since J and I celebrated our second anniversary during this month however, February was definitely centered around fun and creative dates! We went out to dinner, we did fun activities like bowling, and we even ate specialized donuts to celebrate us. I still struggle not seeing J every day and being okay with that! But, I'm definitely grateful for this man of mine and dating him is always magical. 

make time for family... this was probably one of the most important goals for me this month. And excitingly, I got to see my mom twice and my entire family got reunited in a spontaneous night home with pizza and funny conversations. I also got to see my Aunt Paula and cousin Brandon. So, I would definitely give myself an A for making the commitment to family. My next goal is to continue to call home and keep in touch with ALL relatives.

appreciate my co-workers... this month I decided to appreciate the heck out of my co-workers (fellow RDs). Honestly, now that more than half of them are job searching I've been thinking a lot about their impact on me. So, I set out to show appreciation. I baked muffins, I gave our tea-riffic valentines, and wrote thank you notes. I handed out Stress Relief, Bath and Body Works Hand Sanitizer and encouraged them all to do amazing things. I love my co-workers and am definitely thankful to share this RD experience with them all.

And I appreciate them for always sharing funny Student Affairs memes and jokes. Check out our main man, Astin who is hoping you all (especially college students) engage in their community and get involved. Cheers to student development theories!

Anyways, so that is what February looked like. All and all I think I did a great job. I'm going to keep implementing appreciating others into my weekly goals and hopefully I'll continue to love myself, my family, and pretty much have the best dating life ever with J.

xoxo,
Alex

Happiness Habits

Today, I'm taking about Happiness Habits! Everyone says that you choose to be happy and that happiness is an inside job. While, that may be true happiness relies on the people around you. For example, if one of your co-workers or friends is having a crappy day... chances are you'll pick up that negative attitude and wait for it... begin having a crappy day too. Now, the sad part of this post is you cannot control everyone's attitude around you. However, the silver lining to this is that you can control how you ACT.

So, I have come up with five happiness habits that will improve your outlook, make you feel happier, and hopefully will cause others to also be happier. Let's begin:

Don't compare... I am literally the worst at this! I compare apples to oranges all day long and guess what... all it does is makes me either disappointed in myself or frustrated with others! By just focusing on myself and less with the others around me, I will prime myself for success!

Talk less, listen more... this lesson hit me hard last week! For some odd reason, I have this flaw with rambling and saying something I shouldn't. Almost 100% of the time, I don't mean to come off as rude, stand-offish, or snippy but when I turn off my filter, who knows whats coming out of my mouth. On Friday, my bible study read the verse James 1:19 'be quick to listen, be slow to speak, and slow to anger'. Clearly God and the world was sending me a message.

Smile Often... as most of you know, the simple act of smiling can make others smile. However, it can also boost your neurotransmitters and confuse you brain into thinking you are happy. Psychologists have tested and shown that smiling over frowning actually does improve your day and you quality of work. Don't believe me? Check out this article on Smile Therapy!

Give to Others... probably self-explanatory, but by giving to others we can make ourselves happier and make others happier too! However, I'm not just talking about giving money or donating old clothes you never wear. You can give your time to others by turning off that cell phone and being engaged in what they have to say. You can give appreciation to a co-worker who has had a busy week and might need some recognition. The point is even if you aren't having the best day you still have opportunities to make other people's days GREAT and chances are it will probably end up making your day too!

Appreciate the Little Things... How often do we forget to say thank you when someone holds the door for us or when the person in your neighborhood waves as you drive by? My goal is to appreciate the little things and or moments that make life, life. I want to appreciate the good and the bad, because after all those are going to make up moments, which become memories, which you'll one day share with someone who is experiencing the exact same thing.

Anyways, enjoy these happy habits and hopefully they will work for you and your lifestyle! Happy Thursday, friends! If you have more Happy Habits, comment below!

Happier You: Love

It's February and time for my newest Happier You Theme: Love! I'm really looking forward to this month. Although I loved Healthy & Wellness (January's Theme), who doesn't enjoy focusing on LOVE. February's goals are as follows {Love} my whole self, write more letters, old fashioned dating, make time for family, and appreciate my co-workers. I'm not sure how February will pan out, especially since work is smack dab in the middle of RD Selection. But, I think I'll still find time to write adorable letters to my cutest main man and call home. 

love my whole self. 

This goal has been inspired by loving my body and treating my body well. To continue on with my healthy goal, I'm going to love myself by eating healthy, focusing on my fitness, and taking more bubble baths. I also hope to nurture my soul! I can't believe Lent is literally just around the corner. So, during this next week I will be thinking about what I want to give up for Him and how I can work on being a better Christian!

write more letters.

I love receiving mail (not bills) so my goal is to send more positive mail to others. Every week in February, I hope to write at least one letter to a random person as well as send my normal valentines by mail. if you would like a positivity level... email me your address and I would love to send you some rays of sunshine :)

old fashioned dating.

Hello romance, it's nice to meet you! This month that is dedicated to love will bring out the true romantic in me. This coming weekend, Josh and I will be celebrating 2 beautiful years together. I'm so excited for all the fun things and the scavenger hunt that I have planned for him. This man of mine is truly the greatest guy and deserves as much love as I can give him.

make time for family.

On Sunday, I called home and talked about dates with my mom. We are all so busy and with my sister being in Alabama the opportunities for the fam of four (with Josh sprinkled in as well) to be together is limited! It made me so sad knowing that I won't get to see everyone until probably the beginning of March. But, no matter what I know that we will all be together soon.

appreciate my co-workers.

As I have mentioned before February is an extremely busy month for all of us. Between conducting RA or DA evaluations, getting evaluated ourselves, and conducting RD on-campus interviews. Selection times are always exciting and I'm really looking forward to all of the awesome candidates that I will continue to meet. Although this is a really busy time, I hope I can still show my gratitude to all of my co-workers and tell them how much I value them and appreciate them!

I'll update you all at the end of the month on 

how I do with all of my goals for LOVE in February! 

Happier You: Health & Wellness

I can't believe that January is coming to an end! This month truly did fly by and I'm excited that I am a month in to Happier You. To see more of my Happier You goals, check them out here! This month was a really exciting month. I felt so empowered by choosing five new goals to focus on and meeting the expectations I set for myself.

Health & Wellness month was pretty much dedicated to making my body run smoother. After reading a few happiness books, I've learned that one can't become happier by having a run down body. I also learned that one cannot feel happier if one is exhausted and feeling sluggish. So, this month I made five goals: get more sleep, drink tea, leave my apartment, rise on the first alarm, and eat my veggies.

So, let's begin with the update & grade for this month's Happier You goals:

get more sleep... um yes!! It's not surprising that getting more sleep was on my list of happy improvements. As Gretchen Rubin, the author of The Happiness Project so cleverly writes that sleep is essential to our happiness make up! Like her, sleep was one of my first goals for my own happiness projection. Rubin even offers her readers 14 Great Tips for Getting More Sleep. Some of these include: setting a bed time (midnight), establish a bed time routine (cup of water- sometimes with Vitamin C tablet, brush teeth, pre-bed stretches, call Josh to say goodnight), make your room dark and chilly, cover those feet, lotion up (I love using Body Butter by Bliss), and write down your agenda for tomorrow.

I knew getting more sleep was very important for improving my work production and overall function. Now, I definitely still craved naps on some days. But, once I started getting in a routine sleep became easier and I felt more rested from the sleep that I got.

drink tea... so, this Happier You goal I kind of just stumbled upon. I was at Target, walking aimlessly through their well organized aisles when I stumbled upon tea that was on sale. So, naturally I spent twenty minutes in the tea aisle examining the sale, picking out the tea, and putting it in my cart. I was so excited about my new purchase and hopefully what would become my new habit. I decided to test out two different types: Lemon Detox and Nighty Night by Traditional Medicinals. These little teas have made their way into my routine and I am loving their effects. My skin is clearer, I feel healthier, and I sleep pretty gosh darn well. Now, I was a psych major so I'm well aware of the placebo effect... so if this is a placebo or not, I really don't care! I feel better and I'm sticking with it.

leave my apartment... lately my extroverted self has been sent to hibernation and my inner introvert is here to stay. I keep finding myself enjoying quality time in my apartment where I can work on my hobbies, read books, and take bubble baths. But, this quality time spent alone has also been driving me a little crazy! So, my goal is to continue to get out of my apartment... whether that is stretching my legs (achieving 10,000 steps) or swinging by a friends. I've done pretty well on this goal for January. Even when the blizzard hit, I still made it outside and shoveled A LOT. Too bad shoveling didn't equate to steps on my tracker!

rise on the first alarm... arguably the hardest goal and the one I struggle accomplishing every day. Josh kind of inspired this one because he gets up on the first alarm (most mornings) compared to me, who sets 6 alarms to get out of bed. However, I've been realizing that I spend a good 30 minutes whining about getting out of bed and that isn't going to make my morning anymore positive. So, I set my alarm song to All is Love by Karen O and the Kids and am off to a great start!

eat my veggies... hello salads in a jar it's nice to meet you! I used to struggle getting my daily veggie intake. Living at a college campus and eating primarily cafeteria food leaves my veggies opportunities quite limited. So, the salads in a jar have really come in handy! I've been eating them for almost a month now and shaking up the recipes and the jars has been a lot of tasty and healthy fun.

It was really important for my Health and Wellness goals to be tangible and exciting. I did not want to pick any cliche goals and I wanted to pick something new and exciting. I already go to the gym three times a week and I drink plenty of water (I could probably cut soda out of my diet) so I knew building on those goals wouldn't really give me that accomplished feeling. I'm really quite proud of my first month in and I'm glad I stuck to my goals! Stay tuned for February's theme and goal :)

Happier You: An Overview

Happy Wednesday Friends!

Today, I'm finally writing my first post for my Happier You Project! Back in November, I decided to start researching ways to make my life happier and more productive. I came up with twelve different areas of my life that I wanted to work on over the course of the next twelve months. I divided them divided up by month, just to keep me organized and on track. The months were selected intentionally because of life events, however throughout the year I'm keeping all of my happy goals in mind. So, today I am updating you all on where I found the inspiration.

These books have been influential in organizing, planning, and executing my Happier You project. The consistent themes that all three of these books capitalize on are these: You choose happiness, happiness will literally improve all aspects of your life, and happiness starts now.

Happiness has been sought after my literally everyone. People are always looking for the key to happiness, but what I have found is that the key is you. All of these books offer great insight into happiness and I would highly recommend you read them.

The Happiness Advantage- Shawn does an amazing job showing how happiness can not only improve your life, but build up your work performance. One of my favorite quotes from this book is "simply believing we can bring about positive change in our lives increases motivation and job performance; that success, in essence, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy" (Anchor, 74). This book holds great insight into my professional life and I look forward to incorporating his ideas and tips into my work as a supervisor. After all, no one wants to work for someone who is negative or fosters a negative environment. Another aspect that I love about this book is that Shawn uses real life examples and studies to further his evidence! I found the studies he mentioned fascinating and am currently preparing a presentation for my RAs on how simply having a positive outlook on their work will improve their outcomes!

The Happiness Project- I wish Gretchen and I could be best friends. I know she is a married, New York City dwelling, mom and writer/blogger but her book and project was so down right inspiring. She even gives a full tutorial on how to start your own Happiness Project! I loved all of her chapters on ways to make your life happier. My favorite chunks of advice she gave are: de-clutter your life, give to others, hug more & hug for longer then 3 seconds (come here Josh), "be as eager for Mondays as you are for Friday," act with intrinsic motivation, make to do lists for life, and enjoy the journey. Thanks Gretchen for all of your insight and if this little campaign of mine every makes it on your radar I would love to talk on the phone with you... or have coffee... or just be your best friend.

The How of Happiness- Sonja wrote a beautiful book about happiness is changeable and based on your present situation. This book was also quite educational and can be applied to LITERALLY anyone. Sonja covers topics from finding companionship to struggling with depression. I also found Sonja's advice on social comparisons and struggles to be really insightful... every day we experience stress and insecurities. However Sonja encourages popular advice for chronic over thinkers and that's to: "break free, move to higher ground, and avoid future traps." So, stop comparing yourself to others, because no one else is you!

All of these books talk to some extent of practicing kindness! They aren't the cliche happy self-help books that you see in every library or book store. They are real and useful guides to happiness that aren't afraid to call out off days or moments in your life when you want to have a crummy attitude.

I know I won't be a beacon of happiness on this Happier You project. Trust me, just yesterday I found myself sulking in my office about all of the heat issues in my building. Life throws curve balls and difficult situations every day. But, the key to happiness is feeling confident that you can handle all of that and looking at those struggles with a positive frame of mind (intrinsically decided upon).

That's all for now folks! Check back on Thursday for a full update on January's resolutions.

Resolution Essentials {Fitbit} Giveaway

Happy Tuesday friends! I can't believe the month of January is almost over. It really did fly by and before we know it Valentine's Day and then Easter and then Summer (aka beach time) will be upon us. Now, in light of the 'New Year, New You' phenomenon, I teamed up with a bunch bloggers to giveaway a Resolution Essentials Kit! There are a bunch of fun things you can do to enter to win this fabulous giveaway. Among my resolutions (or goals if you will) was to stay more positive. 

Today, I'm also giving you a brief preview of Happier You, which I'll be writing more about on Wednesday!

Borrowed Heaven ||| To Travel & Beyond ||| Christina Lea Loves ||| Martinis & Bikinis

Green Fashionista ||| Vero Says

A Southern Twenty-Five ||| Eat, Drink, & Be Mary ||| Radiating Sunshine ||| Jess Loves This Life

Lowcountry Mama ||| Carly Blogs ||| The Peacock Roost ||| Make.Up.HER

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Over the next year, I will be working on becoming happier. I like to consider myself a happy person, but every now and then negative thoughts consume me and then my work and personal life falter. Well, no more! My goal is to appreciate life for all the bumps in the road and to get more educated on positive psychology so I can share it with you, my family/friends, and my wonderful staff of RAs. 

Spoiler Alert: For January, I focused on health and wellness. Now, I will do a full review of my goals for January later this week. But, here are the goals in short form: get more sleep, drink tea, leave my apartment, wake up on the first alarm, and eat my veggies! January wasn't a perfect month, but it definitely was a month when these goals came to life. 

Hope you all have a terrific day and good luck on all of your resolutions! You have a few days to enter to win this awesome giveaway {It will begin Tuesday, January 26th at midnight and end Monday, February 1st at 11:59 pm. }

How would you use this Resolution Essentials Giveaway?

Happier You

Hello blog friends! I've been eluding to this little happy project of mine for quite some time, but I'm excited to announce that for my golden year I will begin blogging about how to be a happier you. I'm not exactly sure what will come from this blog campaign. But, starting in mid-January I will be launching Happier You, which will feature 12 different ways to live a happier life. Today, I'm going to share with you all the 12 areas of my life that my project will cover. I still have a lot of happiness research to sift through and understand, so I encourage you all to follow my journey. 

january... health and wellness

february... love

march... work as flow

april... family

may... transitions

june... enjoy the sunshine

july... friendship

august... finding purpose

september... faith

october... hobbies

november... thankful heart

december... selfless acts

I don't know how this project will pan out. But, I'm excited to learn more about myself and ways I can become happier and thus encourage others to also become happier. Life is too short to not enjoy everything that life has to offer. So, happy Thursday friends!