Notes on a self improvement project

The next goal I set for myself is another one to help me lead a happier life.  This goal was to make a conscious decision to help someone at least once a week.  Choosing to help others is one of the best ways to live a happier life; and it is one of the reasons I am in the profession I am in now.   In Celest's bathroom at the cabin, she has a sign that says something like "100 years from now, it won't matter how much money you had or what kind of car you drove, but the world may be a different place because you made a difference in the life of a child."  I don't work with children, but I do work with parents of children, and I can help those parents succeed in their studies and thus live a different life and maybe that will make a difference for their children.  I like to think that I am making a difference for the better in the lives of many people for generations to come.  Though this goal has to be outside of my job duties, it can be to help people I...

The next goal I set for myself was one of the first goals I created to try to live a happier life.  This goal is to be a better friend.  To do this, I created a list of several sub-goals. The first sub-goal is to be a better, more active listener.  I think I am an okay listener, but I know that I also tend to talk too much, and sort of take over conversations with stories and examples from my own experiences.  My goal is therefore to remember to let other people talk, and show my interest in their experience by asking questions. The second sub-goal was to look up old friends.  I think this has become less about looking them up (Facebook exists, after all) and more about showing interest in their lives.  I am trying to do this by remembering to comment for birthday wishes and to comment on status updates, especially if it seems as though they need support or have something serious going  on.  Also, I've been playing a game on FB that allows me ...

My third goal is one I just created for myself this week, and it is a goal I created to both be healthier and happier. It is to laugh more and be angry less.  Maybe this should be an obvious thing to change in my life - and maybe because it is something everyone should do - but it is something I seem to need to remind myself about so often that I finally decided to make this one of my formal goals, so I start to make conscious choices to do this. Laughter is the best medicine, after all, so it will really help me to be happier AND healthier to laugh more.  It should not be difficult to do this - I have a good job and work with a lot of great people, and we have a lot of fun there.  I have good friends and we have fun keeping in contact.  That's all good.  But one of the other things I mean by laughing more is to find joy in the simple things in life.  Counting my blessings, in other words. This has been a challenge for me in the last few years.  Th...

The second goal I set for myself was also to live a healthier lifestyle, and this goal is to reduce soda intake.  I know I will never be able to give it up completely, but I can choose, and have chosen, to drink less.  And at some point, the goal will become to maintain a "less" amount. This is one goal I struggle with.  I love soda.  I love drinking soda.  I love everything about it.  I love the happy little pop of the can.  I love the sparkly color.  I love the sugary sweetness of it.  I love taking a bite of something spicy or salty and then a sip of cool, sweet soda.  I love the caffeine buzz.  Giving it up completely would be like giving up a really good friend. Overall, though, I think I am drinking less.  I am buying less of it, (which has the nice side benefit of helping me to be more fiscally responsible!) but maintaining this goal really is a daily battle.  There are days when the siren's call of the Mountain...