The end of the year is always a time for reflection in a lot of people's lives. What has worked the last year, what hasn't. It is often a time when people make resolutions to change the things they don't like, stick with it for a couple weeks and then give up. Change is hard for many people and often times, old habits die hard. I personally, don't like to make resolutions, I feel as if I am setting myself up to inevitably fail. I tend to like to make changes in my life as they come up, not as I see them at the end of the year.
That all being said, this life change happened to come up for me at the end of the year. I recently read this article, and realized, sadly, that I am a chronically unhappy person. While I won't bore you with the details of what categories I fall into, (along with the fact that it seems the opposite of what I am trying to accomplish), I decided it was time to be happy.
While browsing through pinterest a couple days ago I came across a challenge. The challenge was 52 weeks of gratitude, an entire year of expressing what you are grateful for at least once a week. I pinned this before I read the article about chronically unhappy people and I thought about doing it even before I read the article. After I read the article however, my resolute to do this challenge was further ingrained.
Since I am taking this challenge, I figured I would share it with those in my life who love and care about me. Not only so they can see my journey with my happiness, but also so they can keep me accountable. I'm guessing I will also get the stray person I don't know and to you I say, "welcome!"
Today, is December 30th and since we are about to embark on the New Year of 2015, I decided this would be my first week. This week's challenge is to answer the question, "Why start this challenge?"
I am sure many of you can guess why I started this challenge after reading the article I spoke about, but there are a multitude of reasons. Yes, the article was a big motivating factor. I do not want to be someone who thinks life is nothing but a constant struggle, I do not want to concentrate on everything that is bad, instead of everything that is good.
In the simplest of terms, in the most convenient explanations, I believe gratitude will change my attitude. Someone call Dr. Suess! I feel that if I start counting the things I am grateful for instead of all the things that make me angry, hurt and feel unworthy, that I will lead myself to a happier life. That and I feel that there isn't enough gratitude in my life or anyone else's for that matter.
I have many things to be grateful for, my health, my job, the ability to provide for myself and put a roof over my head and the list goes on and on. I have 52 weeks to talk about all those things and I am hoping more than just the 52 (now 51) challenges I have. My hope is that as I start to take this challenge, I find I am grateful for more and more and share those things more frequently than once a week.
