Optimist

op·ti·mist

n.

1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome.

2. A believer in philosophical optimism.

 

Ever since resigning from the old job and counting down till the new...I can't help but feel perpetually optimistic!!!  I am on cloud nine.  I can do nothing wrong these days...and good things are bound to happen over and over...right?  Calorie splurges?  Whatev.  Can't touch me.  Lotta Max ticket?  A sure thing.  Colds passing from family member to family member?  Snot free for me.

 

I am riding this wave.  It feels GREAT. 

 

Conjuring positive thinking when you are in a really bad place seems impossible.  Sometimes it seems like nothing goes your way.  But if you can just grab onto a starting point, it is surprisingly easy.  So from here on out I will do my best to be the one who usually expects a favourable outcome.  I think this wave will last a while!  :) 

Contemplating change

Stumbled upon an opportunity for the job change that I have been longing for.  I wasn't expecting it, and I have been thrown for a loop!  I have been giving it a lot of thought, and the weirdest part for me is actually assuming that something great could happen that I didn't have to work for. I didn't go after this job...there was no blood, sweat, or tears involved (yet!)...so somehow it seems odd and really too good to be true. I think I need to spend some time processing what a big change it would be for me. 

I've had a job for over 10 years that I really don't love.  But I'm like a puppy...pretty loyal....and being honest (as I always am....) I stuck it out for some pretty great perks.  But those perks have come and gone...and now I think I need to move on.  But I assume leaving a long-time job is like leaving a bad marriage.  No matter how crappy it is, it is still hard. 

The saying "the grass isn't always greener on the other side" keeps popping into my head....but right now I'm not thinking green..(except for the $$$ of course...)...but what if the metaphorical grass was actually PINK on the other side!??  I could never have imagined or expected that...but how AWESOME would that be!? I'll never know unless I try.....and it would be one BIG step towards happy.

Finding your funny

Nothing like unearthing an amazing photo of someone you love to bring happiness to a day!  I was given my sister-in-law's memory card for her camera to use some pics for my niece's birthday invite...and I stumbled upon a picture of my son that speaks volumes.  It captures his spirit so vividly.  It will forever be one of my favourite pictures.  It was taken in the summer of 2010...a few weeks prior to him turning two...and right around the time when little ones start to figure out how to be FUNNY!  He's an old pro these days...:)

Today's happy moment...cleaning out an overstuffed filling cabinet!

Need more hours in the day

For Xmas my husband purchased me the book THE HAPPINESS PROJECT by Gretchen Rubin,(two high fives to him) hence my inspiration for this blog.  Have I read it?  Not yet.  My quest for balance and ultimate happiness includes weight loss.  A significant amount of it.  However... now that this has been added to the list, somethings have to give.  My reading has dropped off, but I have been well intentioned.  So much so that I have been carrying this book around with me, and moving it around my house in hopes that I will see it some other time than bedtime when I am exhausted, but now it is lost in my abyss. 

When I do get around to reading it...I hope it rocks!  The author better not be a single lady with no kids and no job, or I will snap.  And she had better not be rich, with all of the world's wonders at her finger-tips.  I don't think this is the case...and therefore I am stoked. 

The last year I have really been taking time to do things that I find fun, and stop waisting my precious "self" time on things that are not.  The funny thing I have noticed is that what I find FUN can change quicker than I thought.  I think the key to an unfulfilled life is doing and defining yourself the same way for your whole life.  Acknowledging and embracing change is not easy, and it may require distance between yourself and the people in your life.  So for me, defining FUN needs to change.  I need to find FUN in more than one thing that usually involves me by myself. 

Playing with my kids in the snow and having them cry and freak out because it is too cold and wet and too hard to navigate through the volumes of snow we have.....FUN, right?  I don't buy it just now...but I'm working on it.

Blue Monday

So...driving to work this morning, I heard that today has been deemed "Blue Monday" because now is the time when holiday credit card bills start pouring in, and New Years Resolutions are busted already.  To counteract this phenomenon, my radio station of choice decided to play "Kokomo" to cheer people up.

Guess what?  It worked. Why?  Almost BEST SONG EVER!

And it got me thinking.  The song refers to going to Kokomo "to get away from it all..."   In what..1989??  How complicated was life then? Didn't people just have to worry about changing batteries in their Walkmen, back combing their bangs, and matching their legwarmers to their belts?  Ok, maybe that was just me.  But in all seriousness, life must have been simpler then.  Why?  Technology and Credit.

We have technology to make our lives easier, but in reality the time we've gained has been filled ten-fold by all the hustle and bustle of life as defined by this Generation.  When I was a child, life consisted of school and the odd sport.  My parents activities were limited, and the highlight of the week was Knot's Landing on Thursday nights.  Now I can PVR hours of TV that I don't want to miss, but will never have enough time to watch.  But be darned if I don't feel pressured to add that PVR'd TV to my TO-DO List. 

And we spend!  Banks lining up to feed us credit to get the immediate gratification we see everyone else getting from the new big screen TV and Navigation equipped SUV.  So we try it out, and get addicted immediately!  And nobody is better than justifying things than our Generation.  Why?  We deserve it of course!  We word hard.  Our kids deserve the best.  Everyone deserves a break.  But don't buy a KitKat, it goes straight to your thighs.  And those thighs had better fit nicely into a Size 4.  Maybe mine would if I spent more time scrubbing my laundry by hand and growing our food in a garden. 

So, maybe one key to my improved happiness is to simplify.  Take things back a few decades.  I'm keeping my washing machine, but maybe this spring a garden is in order.  And I need to re-think my TO-DO lists.

I ended the day by paying $20 to park downtown (Seriously!!) and it took me almost 2 hours to get home.  I thought about renaming today CRAP Monday, but then I saw my kids smile when I picked them up.  And it could always be worse.  I could have been the poor sucker working the parking booth, having to charge people $20 per day.  Bet he's popular.

Oh...the IRONY!

Hahaha.  Love it.  Setting up my blog, and the default picture is what you see.  Simple...serene...invokes a feeling of happiness.  Or does it?!  Right now I am buried in a world of snow and cold, so anything with bright happy colors is appealing.  But look closer, (as I always do...I'm a sucker for the fine print!). 

Dandelion seeds blowing in the wind.  Seriously?  Cute and fun in theory...make a wish and BLAH BLAH BLAH....but in reality, NOT COOL.  Who likes Dandelions?  Not me.  Not the neighbor shooting you dirty looks when you neglect your mowing.  If we all spent our days blowing around dandelions that have gone to seed...our landscapes would be in a world of hurt.  And I'm not just talking eye sore issues.  Dandelions growing out of control... pillaging our soils of the nutrients we need to grow food...food shortages...starvation....death.  Right?  I see a doomsday movie script here...

OK, maybe not.  A little extreme, even for me.  But, hence the title of my blog.  A Happiness Project.  I am working on one.  Negative Nancy...Debbie Downer....pick one, its mostly me.  Not sure how or why...just know it has to change!  My cup is half full in 2011!!

So for now...or at least the rest of today...dandelions?  Fun!