A Happiness Project

I've been reading Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project and following her blog at www.happiness-project.com.  It possibly reveals a lot about my character that what attracted me in the title was the word "project" more than the word "happiness".  I love a project.  I'm also largely in favor of happiness but I don't think I'd have handed over my $6.75 plus HST to purchase it.  On the other hand, a project for less than $10 is a bargain not to be missed.

My love of projects dates back to elementary school where "projects" invariably involved old magazines, construction paper and glue.  I wasn't very fond of Art as a subject but creating art for a social studies project was great fun.  Years later in my working life, I was always the first in the office to volunteer for special projects.  Accounting projects aren't much different from regular accounting - both involve numbers and cross-checking and hours at the photocopier.  But while regular files were tedious, project files were exciting.  I think my last boss picked up on my bias (or perhaps he shared my enthusiasm for projects).  He would show up at my desk every week or so and announce "I have a project for you".  These were frequently nasty files that involved preparing long overdue tax returns and/or correcting other firms' errors.  The supporting receipts were most often nearly illegible, coffee stained and crumb encrusted.  The clients were high maintenance - either exceptionally demanding or blithely unconcerned about notices from CRA or simply outright odd.  If the files had been placed in the usual "pending work" bin, I would have given them a wide berth but being selected for a "special project" I was all over it.

Since I've retired, projects are what get me out of bed in the morning.  Reading Gretchen's book, I've recognized that the farm could be viewed as my happiness project - undertaking a venture to improve the quality of life without expectation of monetary profit.  I have a myriad of other smaller projects that boost my sense of well being; crafts, of course, but also the challenges my friend Jan and I set for one another on a regular basis - make a list of things you like to do and do one, read a book outside of your preferred genre, go a day without complaining about the kids, make a business plan for a wool shop, try a new salad recipe and, my favourite of Jan's suggestions, do one useful thing each day.  Jan and I don't think of these as "happiness" projects - we call it "surviving" - but I suppose that is what they are.

I'm ambivalent about making "happiness" a project (although I'm itching to complete Gretchen's Resolutions Chart) but what I've learned this week is that projects make me happy.