"It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it."So what exactly does that mean? It means that this year, I am committed to living well, enjoying life, to helping others, bettering my relationships and actively making sure that my life matters. The way I see it, it can be broken down o a few things:
1. Be healthy- I'm not talking about the standard "lose weight, eat better, exercise more" mantra that is so common in early January but long forgotten come March. True, those are all part of it, but I'm looking at it from a different perspective this time. I want to exercise more and eat better because it makes me feel better. When I'm working out regularly I notice a difference in my energy level - I have more of it. Which means I don't fall asleep on the couch every night (something that drives Hubby crazy). I'm going to try to eat better - but if I want ice cream... I'm eating ice cream, although maybe a smaller bowl, because that falls into the enjoying life part.
2. Be happy - In other words, do more of the things that make me happy and less of the things that don't. This covers a variety of things, but my approach to this is inspired in part by The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin and by my friend Justin's Operation: Consolidation. In Justin's blog, he talks about getting rid of useless clutter. Something that I have a lot of in my life, so I'm going to try to eliminate it.
I started today with my closet with a "cut throat cleaning session," which basically involved going through all my clothes (in the closet and dresser) and get rid of the stuff I don't wear. My rules were simple- whatever my gut reaction was to an item I went with- keep or toss, no second guessing. It took me just over an hour, but I ended up with two trash bags full of clothes that didn't make the cut and a pile of empty hangers. Seeing my closet organized and with a bit of room made me instantly happy...mission accomplished!
Another part of this is that I hate cleaning, mainly because most of my days off are spent cleaning. So, I'm going to try to dedicate the last 15 minutes of every day to cleaning something, so that hopefully come my next day off, I won't have to do anything, with the exception of my 15 minutes. That being said, I need to go start on my cleaning for today....so the rest of this will have to wait until tomorrow....
