Focus for the Next 12 Months

For my Happiness Project, each month has a specific focus and a goal for what I want to do for each thing. I want to make the most of every month, so I have made them into broad categories with specific goals that fall under each thing. to make the month as productive as possible.

Here is my plan:

April: Physical

My goal for this month is to focus on exercise and feeling better physically.
I will get more sleep, make better eating choices, and workout every day!
This also includes cleaning up my life, organizing my closet and getting rid of things I don’t need in order to clear my space and my mind.
Getting more sleep means looking into sleep studies and research and finding the “best” way to sleep in order to sleep through the night.

May: Memories

Since I am going to South Africa this month, I am making it all about making memories. I will take a picture every single day of the month. I will put together an online photo book from my pictures from 2013, and start one from the beginning of 2014.
I also want to start creating a smash book of random things that I like during this month.
This month’s goals are also going to be focused on doing new things and crossing things off my bucket list that I made last summer and haven’t put a dent in it.

June: Family

This month will be spent mostly at home with my parents and little brother. I plan to spend some time traveling to Grand Island and Ogden to see my sets of grandparents that don’t live in Beatrice. I want to spend a couple days with each set of grandparents, because last year made me very aware that they won’t be around forever and I can’t take advantage of them.
I also plan to spend a couple days taking Luke on trips to do some of the fun summer stuff.
This month I also want to figure out my family tree and trace it back as far as I can.

July: Attitude
This is the month that I will be gone for Annual Training for two weeks. Military days can get really long, but it is all about attitude. My goal for this month is to overall smile and not stop.
This also includes not complaining when it comes to things that I have to do. Not comparing my day to other peoples day and seeing whose is worse.
Complaining is one of the things that I tend to do more than I notice, so I am going to make it a goal to not complain and to just keep smiling. I also want to start talking to people that I normally wouldn’t talk to, whether it is within my unit or in the community.
This is the time that I am going to start a laugh journal. One of the speakers that I have listened to at a leadership conference said to write down all of the things that make you laugh and keep them in a journal of stories. This is a good way to keep your memories, but also remember the good times that you had laughing.

August: Time
Augusts focus is to make time for the things I enjoy in life. This is the month that I want to be able to read as much as I can, workout, take pictures, edit photos, lay in bed and watch movies, and spend time playing computer games.
My problem is that when I really enjoy doing something, I often feel guilty for doing these things before I do more productive things that I should be doing.
I also want to find a new hobby. Something that I will be able to enjoy for many years to come as well as something that is fun and I can include my family and friends.
This month will also be focused on using my blog as much as I can.

September: Work Hard
Because I don’t currently have a job, I don’t know exactly what this is going to consist of as of yet. I am planning on trying to go to Reclass school for the military or Warriors Leadership Course for the military. This would mean working hard towards graduating and putting effort into those things.
If I don’t go to reclass school, it would mean working towards things to put on my resume such as working with the FRG, honor guard, or another volunteer project that I decide to get involved with.

October: Money
Money is a struggle for many people’s happiness. Many have found that the happiest people are in fact not the people with all the money. While people with money can be happy, it is not always a direct correlation.
My goal this month is to figure out a savings plan to put some money away. But also to splurge on some of the things that I want to do or buy.
This month is going to be interesting

November: Be Grateful. 
This is the month to create a grateful journal. This is where you record the really big things that you are thankful for. I am doing it in the month of November because of the Days of thankfulness that many of my friends do every day all the way to Thanksgiving.
I want to take this month to make sure that the people in my life know that I am grateful for them, and my goal is to reach out to some of the friends that I don’t seem to talk to as much as I would like to. I want to make sure that over the month I contact at least 15 friends or family members that I don’t get to talk to enough.

December: Other Peoples Happiness
Many of the things I have read say that If you can make other people happy, you will be happy in return. I want to spend this month ringing bells, working with the food pantry or the wish list. Working at a shelter or doing other holiday things. This sounds really cliche because a lot of people only volunteer during the holiday season, but I also think it is a very good way to follow up a month of gratefulness.
Also with Christmas gifts, sometimes giving is better than receiving. I love Christmas because I love finding the perfect gift for my parents, my grandma, or my little brother. I will continue to do this, but this year I want to make sure that I focus on things they would actually use compared to things I think they would enjoy.

January: Mindfulness
This is the month that I want to focus on mediation and focusing on how I am spending the minutes of my day. Oftentimes I wasted time doing things that I don’t need to do.
This month will most likely involve deleting a lot of my apps on my phone, watching how much time I spend messing around on pinterest or social media.
I want to spend a couple minutes mediating or doing yoga each day to relax and refocus my mind. This is going to be the month of productiveness.

February: Love
Of Course, I wouldn’t be following the calendar if February didn’t have anything to do with love. Valentine’s day is often the focal point of February. This is the month that I am going to try to spend time focusing on how I talk to others. How I express my feelings for other people.
This is also going to be another month of expressing it to my friends and family.

March: Putting it all together
As it is in the book, The Happiness Project, the last month is trying to be “perfectly happy” The focus is to put together everything for the ultimate level of happiness. This month is not about being perfect, but not giving up. It is also about seeing which things work to make you happy because each person is slightly different with what makes them happy.

These are just the brief description of each month. There will be more things added to the project as I do more research and more reading about each topic. This is just the minimum over view!

If anyone wants to join me in their own happiness journey, Feel Free! I am excited to see what all happens in the next year!!

Let me know what you think!
Throughout my project I am going to post a question of the day with each post! please comment on the blog, my facebook link, simply send me a message, or talk to me in person, but I would love to put it all together and possibly publish some of the great feedback that I get from this project.

Question of the Day: Which month do you think will cause the happiness the most throughout the year? What other ideas would you add to your own Happiness Project if YOU were doing it!

Let Me Know!!