Finding more happiness!

I live a good life and I'm grateful for all that I have. This year I have managed to find more happiness, mostly related to reading books and writing. This year I began writing a book that I've wanted to write for some time. I kept waiting for "inspiration" to begin, when really I was afraid that I had bitten off more than I could chew. I was delaying starting to protect myself from realizing the error in goal setting I thought I had made. But I'll tell you, the cure for procrastination is to start in some small way. Once I started I was able to keep going in spurts and progress became motivating. Another motivator for writing has been engaging more with writing communities. It helps to feel like you're not struggling alone. It also creates accountability when you know more than your eyes are watching.

Reading books has been another source of happiness this year. I have felt so much better now that I have reincorporated leisure reading regularly into my life. Now, I have made some missteps in terms of book choices. As a result, I trudged through a few books that I was only mildly interested in, some of which were over 700 pages (Yikes). But overall I am so happy to be leisure reading again after years of telling my self, "I can't read much anymore."

I have been doing more of what I want to do and it has made for a happier life.By writing and reading more, I've been able to achieve a few more goals. Moreover, a wonderful byproduct of being more engaged with reading and writing has been the organic cutting back of TV watching and mindless online scrolling. And that feels great!