My 2012 Personal Commandments

Merry Christmas! I hope that Santa brought you everything that you wished for and that you spent it with people that you love.

I recently read The Happiness Project which I loved. I really liked the concept of the project as I was reading the book and can honestly say that I thought it would provide more than a slight challenge to me. I’m great at focusing, in short periods. The thought of sustaining new activities and conscious changes to my life, does seem pretty daunting.

For those of you that are yet to read The Happiness Project, let me explain. The idea is that with each month, you introduce an element that will enhance your life in some way. In January, for example, you might decide to take better care of yourself (more sleep, removing makeup etc). In February then, you maintain the activity from January and introduce another element, for example more exercise. Hopefully by the end of the year, you’ve enhanced experiences in your life and are healthier for it.

I finished the book about 6 weeks ago now, but it felt right to introduce the changes that I wanted at the start of the new year. A new beginning. Given that I’m not a great believer in new year resolutions, I’d rather introduce new things to my life to enhance it rather than remove things. As part of the project, I’ve written myself some commandments. The concept of the commandments is that at any point, I can check back to them and make sure that I’m adhering to keep me on track. I thought it might be nice to share them:

• Be true to myself
• Enjoy the ride
• Make the most of every moment
• Invest in happiness
• Don’t forget about happiness in moments of sadness
• Love myself without spoiling or guilt
• Walk. Every single day
• Be kind. Always
• Let it go
• Be open to love

I can’t wait to see how it goes. As I work on my project over the next few days, I’ll share it here. It would be great to hear whether you’ve tried a similar thing or whether you’re planning your very own project. What are your commandments? I’d love to hear them…