happiness project: ramp-up

December 10, 2013

i’m not going to lie: i’m getting kind of excited about my own HP.  as part of the ramp-up, i’m going through some of the writing prompts in my [super cute, enticingly blank and smooooooth] happiness journal.

an interesting one from last week:

what makes you unhappy?

my first thought was: why focus on the negative?
my second was: well, perhaps this will be interesting.
because eliminating — or, even better, learning to deal with — things that make me unhappy is perhaps as important as seeking joy.  here’s [most of] what i came up with:
feeling tired
feeling rushed
multitasking ineffectively*
feeling lonely
eating badly
being late
not having made plans [ie, on a weekend] and feeling trapped/isolated
being/feeling disorganized
feeling like i am not communicating well
pressure of procrastination
cilantro
feeling out of shape/frumpy
wasting $**
wasting time
hearing two [or more] things at once
not running
toddler meltdowns
when i feel like i’m putting someone out
being stuck somewhere in uncomfortable shoes
interrupted sleep [sadly]
impromptu changes in plans
[really, impromptu anything]
getting lost
thunderstorms
mosquito bites
when i can’t practice good medicine AND make a patient happy
not having anything to wear!
URIs and other illnesses
not having enough alone time / quiet time
technology that doesn’t work
when a. doesn’t sleep well
not having access to articles i want at work
feeling distracted
while making this list didn’t make me feel particularly happy, it did feel a bit empowering.  because it helped me to realize that most of the items are either a) things i can control, at least to some extent or b) things i can come up with strategies to deal with.
* pretty much encompasses all multitasking
** not to be confused with spending $.  
what’s on your list?  top 3?

No Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.