Starting Now.

Today I purchased The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I got home, and began reading.. it is phenomenal. I would recommend it to everyone. This is not a book for only those suffering through depression, though this would be a very good pick to read if you are. This book was made for anyone to grab off the shelf. It is about making yourself happier, even if you are already happy because there is always room for improvement, and I don't see why anyone would dream of passing this opportunity up.

"There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy."

-Robert Louis Stevenson

"I grasped two things: I wasn't as happy as I could be, and my life wasn't going to change unless I made it change. In that single moment, with that realization, I decided to dedicate a year to trying to be happier." -The Happiness Project. I feel like if we all took a second and just thought. Thought about our lives, our goals, our dreams, and then finally, our reality. What would we notice? Personally, I see that I have been stuck in a dream-like state that has caused reality to be blurred. I don't even know what reality is anymore. And this idea really scares me.

So, I am taking the challenge. The happy challenge, that will change my life forever. Because when I look at my life, I think of one quote, "So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and still trying to figure out how that could be." -The Perks of Being a Wallflower. And I would love to look at my life and be excited for it. Be ready to go out and live.

"I wanted to change myself but accept myself. I wanted to take myself less seriously--and also more seriously. I wanted to use my time well, but I also wanted to wander, to play, to read at whim. I wanted to think about myself so I could forget myself."

-The Happiness Project

As Rubin has done in her book, I am going to start off by making a list of 12 commandments that I will follow throughout the year.

1. Be Courtney.

2. Don't hesitate.

3. Embrace every flaw.

4. Spend time alone & with everyone I know.

5. Love everyone.

6. Allow help from others.

7. Focus on the positive.

8. Let it go.

9. Find the problem.

10. Have more variety.

11. Fix it. Now.

12. Smile regularly.

"What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while." -The Happiness Project

Also, every month I will have a different area of focus, that I will not give up when the month ends, but I will simply grow on it, until I have reached my highest possible level of happiness. I am going to follow Rubin's plan for January, and focus on boosting my energy. This includes: go to sleep earlier, exercise more often, organization, tackling those tasks you put off, and acting more energetic. And I mean it, I really do. I feel like this could be a life changing experience for me. As the months go on, not all of her plans apply to my life considering I am a high school student in the Midwest of the United States. I do not need to worry about marriage, or parenthood anytime soon, so things will be adjusted to better suit my lifestyle. All of those changes will be addressed as they come up, right here on my blog.

Wish me luck on this journey, and I hope you go out and buy your own copy of The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. You won't regret it.