A Month of Self Reflection

Happiness Project Month One Recap

Month one has come and gone. It’s like that saying, that January was the longest year. January always goes by so slowly that you think it’s March by the time it’s over. Here in Toronto, it has been super cold lately too. The words “Polar Vortex” may have been used more than once. Its about -20 Celsius without the wind chill. That’s -4 in Fahrenheit for all the American readers. 🙂 Super cold. Days where no one even wants to go outside unless absolutely necessary. Thank god I’m off today and can enjoy the whole day indoors. I plan on puttering around the house, reading, baking, doing chores and all of that other fun stuff no one likes to do. Well except me. I love cleaning, organizing, planning, baking. It’s my stress release. Especially when no one is around and you can dance around the house singing as loud as you want while the cat looks at you oddly with her ears pressed back. Almost saying, “Mom, what is your problem?” I also love to catch up on a good podcast. I find since I’m always listening to way too many podcasts, I’m always behind.

Anyways, Month one of my Happiness project was all about self reflection. I did a lot of that, that’s for sure. Reflected on where I am in my life, where I have come from and where I plan to go. Currently, I am quite happy with my life. I wish I had more money, but doesn’t everybody? There’s always the struggle of getting a bonus and then trying to figure out what you want more; something cute for the house, a new book, or sometimes in my case, a good haul at Shoppers Drug mart or the local health food store. Usually I end up just going to the grocery store and splurging on a new supplement or new product I have been wanting to try. I also cannot even remember the last time I went and spent money on new clothes. I find clothes so expensive nowadays. What happened to the days where you could get a whole outfit or 2 for $50? Now, I find shirts are coming in at 20-30 each and a pair of pants the same cost. You blink and they tell you $200. Wait, come again? So, I find myself rarely buying new clothes, or just avoiding clothing stores altogether. I’ve found some good deals on “Wish” over the years, but the shipping costs are crazy high per item and they take over a month to get here. And, even then I have bought some items that are so cheap, the fabric is too thin and they fit oddly so they end up getting shoved to the back of the closest with the other forgotten items.

Again, I digress. I think i’m just in a rambling mood today. Back to where have I come from. That 10 year challenge on Instagram really got me thinking about where I have come from. 10 years ago, I was 19, about to turn 20. I was drinking, smoking and doing all of those other unhealthy habits. I had just moved back home to live with my parents after living on my own for a year. It was not a healthy head space to be in. I think I was working at either Winners or Swiss Chalet at the time. Either way, I had dropped out of High school and still had 4 credits to complete before graduating. I believe it wouldn’t be until September that I would be enrolling back in high school to complete them. See, you have to be 21 to take adult day school, and I believe in September I would be working at Swiss Chalet in the evenings so didn’t have time to do night school for adults. Which meant I had no choice but to go back to high school at 20 years old. It wasn’t so bad, since I knew a lot of the kids that would be in grade 12. But, it was a brave decision on my part and I just decided to bite the bullet and do it. I am also really smart so school has never been to much of a challenge for me. Well, at least when I decide to try and apply myself.

So, fast forward a few years, I went to College, worked in the Hotel industry for 8 years, and now a year later and I am once again deciding what to do with my life and where do I want to go. Looking back over the past 10 years, has proven that when I want to do something, I do it no matter the costs. I wanted to graduate high school, did that. Wanted to go to college. Did that and graduated with honors. Worked my way up in the hotel world from housekeeping all the way to Director of Sales in a record time. Could have gone higher, but since I’m so stubborn and the hotel world is full of a bunch of old people at the top who want you to do things their way or the highway. Can you tell I have a bit of resentment? Well, that is definitely a story for another day.

So, now I know that I have the skills to literally do anything that I want, where do I go from here? I have been thinking about this ever since I left the hotel world last year. What do I want to do with my life? What is my passion? Can you have a job you absolutely love but also make enough money to be financially stable? Everything I have been listening to in podcasts and reading in books tells me that this is possible. So, how do I create a job that will do that for me? How do I know what that is?

This leads me to listing out what I love to do and creating a job from that instead of the other way around. Instead of thinking of jobs that I could do or are available I decided to create a job out of what I love. And then the light snapped on and a job came to mind. I have this passion for health and wellness and nutrition. More specifically holistic nutrition. Ways to heal your body without pharmaceutical companies. Heal your body and mind with food. The one problem is that the school I want to go to is thousands of dollars. And, they don’t really do payment plans. Its either, full, 2 installments or 4 installments, which is still more than a thousand dollars a payment. So, I have decided that come September I am enrolling. I will hustle bust my butt saving up the money. Because, this is something I really want.  And when I really want something, I get it and will bend over backwards to make it happen.

So, next Month’s Happiness theme will be all about energy. Energy is something we all want more of. Need energy when we wake up, need energy to get us through the day and at the end of the day when all our energy is depleted, sleep consumes us. I have a few ideas of things I want to talk about and hopefully will try not to talk about the obvious one which is caffeine.

Comment below on what your favourite ways to recharge your energy. Because we all can’t have naps throughout the day anymore like when we were younger.