Change is in the air

If you've been reading along, you'll know that I've had two great experiences lately. The first was attending the '7 Habits of Highly Effective People' seminar. The second was reading, 'The Happiness Project'. Both of these experiences resonated very strongly with me and have resulted in some big shifts in my thinking and doing.

As a result, I'm making a few changes.

There are a few little things; like no TV nights, writing a daily one sentence gratitude journal (sounds a bit 'Oprah', but is helping me focus on all the great things I have to be thankful for) and taking time out for fun.

And there are a few bigger things; like creating my personal commandments (or personal mission statement as Mr Covey refers to), goal setting, committing to an exercise routine and making sure I stick to my new weekly and daily planning routine.

So far so good, but feel free to drop me a line and make sure I'm sticking with my changes!

What 'fun' means

I'm still reading this awesome book (and also reading the daily happiness emails as well; you can sign up for those over here).

The book is really resonating with me and I'm having all of these little a-ha moments; it feels like they're zinging all around me while I read. It's kinda cool.

This particular a-ha moment was so good that I wanted to share; here's the quote that got me thinking about fun and what it means to me...

I needed to acknowledge to myself what I enjoyed, not what I wished I enjoyed. If something was really fun for me, it would pass this test; I looked forward to it; I found it energising, not draining; and I didn't feel guilty about it later.

- Rubin, The Happiness Project, 2009

In my life, there are a whole heap of things that I wish I was interested in doing. I wish that I was a bit more interested in reading 'The Economist', that I read more about International Affairs, that I understood how Twitter works, and the list goes on. But to be honest, I'm not that interested in any of these things, that's why I find it such a struggle to do them. So why bother? It would be a whole lot easier (and I'd be happier) if I spent time doing what's fun to me (which won't be what's fun for you, and that's cool, because I'm me and you're you!)

Sheesh, am I making any sense here? I'm not trying to say that it's not good to try new things and to push yourself if you don't initially enjoy something; but it's those things that you know deep down you're just not that interested in, even if you wish you were.

And so I have another little resolution; I'm going to stop thinking about what I wish I was interested in and embrace what I do find fun.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I've started reading 'The Happiness Project' by Gretchen Rubin and I've signed myself up for her daily 'happiness' emails.

I'm really enjoying the book; it captures Gretchen's challenge to self to be more happy, more fulfilled and appreciative of the great life that she has. Over the course of a year, she creates her personal framework for happiness, her 12 personal commandments and each month sets herself a few themed tasks (pick up the book to find out more!).

Yesterday the 'happiness' email popped into my inbox with an incredibly tantalising subject line; 'The Joy of Craft'. As a self confessed crafter I was keen to read more. The article was about Frederick P. Brooks' book, 'The Mythical Man Month: Essays on Software Engineering'; what on earth does this have to do with crafting? Well, craft can come in many different forms; maybe software engineering is one of them and maybe knitting is another one. Each to their own, I say.

Here's the part of the article that really struck a chord with me:

Nothing is inherently fun. Some people find computer programming fun, or skiing, shopping, drinking wine, doing crossword puzzles, playing tennis, knitting, fly-fishing, watching American Idol. I find none of these things fun. But then, some people wouldn't enjoy blogging -- or reading books about computer programming! Which I do find fun.
But apart from the particular fun (or not) of computer programming, Brooks had a great list of the reasons that "craft" is fun:

1. "The sheer joy of making things." Not to be underestimated.
2. "The pleasure of making things that are useful to other people." Seeing other people take delight in what we've created, or benefit from something we've done, is enormously satisfying.
3. "The fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects...and watching them work." Getting something to WORK. An under-appreciated joy. Gosh, when I finally got some songs to load into my iPod, I thought I would break into song.
4. "The joy of always learning, which springs from the nonrepeating nature of the task."
5. "The delight of working in such a tractable medium. The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff." True -- but the opposite of a profound truth is also true, and I think there's a mirror pleasure to be gained from dealing with actual, physical, tangible materials.

Source: http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2011/07/i-recently-read-sort-of-frederick-brookss-the-mythical-man-month-as-i-understand-it-its-a-cult-classic-and-i-was-very.html

Like wow. How awesome is that. Reading this reminded me of why it's so important to have a 'craft', whatever it may be and how much enjoyment it can bring to your life. It feels like I'm having all of these little 'a-ha' moments over the last few weeks and this little article gave me another one.

I encourage you to have a think about your 'craft'; do you have one? If not, have a think about getting one, or maybe two or three. And make sure you let me know about it!