{"id":792,"date":"2016-01-01T06:50:06","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T11:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/?p=792"},"modified":"2016-01-01T02:00:47","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T07:00:47","slug":"week-68-one-surefire-way-to-love-your-life-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spreadhappyness.com\/?p=792","title":{"rendered":"Week #68 – One Surefire Way to “Love Your Life” in 2016!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NYE’05 (photo credit: Gina Buongiorno)<\/p><\/div>\n

[Editor’s Note: this is a partial re-post from Week #16<\/a> — because celebrating is never a bad idea!]<\/em><\/p>\n

Week #68 – One Surefire Way to “Love Your Life” in 2016!<\/strong><\/p>\n

New Year’s is a natural time to look\u00a0back over the past year and reflect on the highs, the lows, what happened, what went wrong, and how we can fix it in the new year ahead.<\/p>\n

But it’s hard to love your life when it’s so easy to look back and come up with all the bad things that happened. \u00a0At the end of 2014 — while looking back on all that transpired — I forgot about starting this website and blogging for the first time (something I had been wanting to do for years!). \u00a0Those two wins got eclipsed\u00a0(momentarily) by one very significant loss. \u00a0It’s easy to get stuck on the\u00a0losses…but we have to balance them with what we’ve gained. \u00a0We have to, as our friend Rob Nicholson said in a Facebook post last year:<\/p>\n

“Keep moving forward and celebrate and revel in what we have!”<\/strong><\/p>\n

So I challenged you last year to look ahead…WAY ahead. \u00a0To December 31st of 2015. \u00a0And I asked you — What will it take to say on that day, “I love my life?”<\/p>\n

Do you remember? \u00a0If not, don’t feel bad. \u00a0I said at that time that I knew one thing for sure:<\/p>\n

It will take\u00a0REMINDERS!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your Happyness Challenge for the week ahead:<\/strong> Were you one of the ones that kept track of your achievements, high points, and happy moments? \u00a0If not — don’t worry. \u00a0Go back through your calendar, your emails, your phone — whatever it takes to come up with enough reminders of all you accomplished and did right this year! \u00a0And either way — CELEBRATE the completion of another year, another trip around the sun! \u00a0SHARE your successes with others — and ENCOURAGE others to live a life they LOVE in 2016!<\/p>\n

Bonus Challenge:\u00a0<\/strong>Don’t count on yourself to remember everything about the year ahead come December 31st next year. \u00a0Make a plan to curate the wins just as much as the losses. \u00a0Come up with a system for recording your achievements, successes, highlights, and otherwise happy times THROUGHOUT\u00a0the year\u00a0ahead! \u00a0The most obvious way is to keep a dated list — in a journal, on your computer, via email, or on your phone — where you take time each day to review your activities and take note of anything special or significant. \u00a0I keep a running list by date and habitually recount the day’s activities. \u00a0To be honest, most days it’s pretty mundane — but the habit assures that when something notable happens I’m going to capture and remember it. \u00a0Here are some other ideas from last year’s post:<\/p>\n