Saying Yes to Your Happiness

I can remember last year, rushing to work in Uber while catching up on emails, ordering my dinner from Munchery, and scheduling my laundry pick up with Rinse. San Francisco is full of services designed to make our lives more convenient and believe me, I was taking full advantage of the available options under the guise of saving myself time. The time I was saving quickly got allotted to my career instead of working out, cooking, journaling, getting enough sleep or seeing my friends. I slowly lost sight of putting myself first.

Halfway through this year, I knew I needed to make a change, but I was scared and didn’t know how or where to start. Admittedly, deep down I had always thought that suddenly something would switch in my life where everything would slow down allowing me to take care of myself. The realization hit me that it was me that needed to make it happen- I had to shift my priorities and change my behaviors and it wasn’t going to be easy or happen overnight.

Over the past few months, I’ve been able to implement big changes in my life which have come along with renewed excitement and feeling energized for what I’ve planned to do for myself that day. Especially in SF, we can get caught up in life and lose sight on our own happiness, health and wellness but with the new year approaching it’s time to reflect on this year and decide what you want your life to look like in 2017.

Here’s a road map to help you navigate your journey to saying yes to your happiness.

Getting Started

• Identify what aspects of your life bring you happiness

• Identify what aspects of your life bring you the most stress

• Map out what you want your life to look like in 6 months

• Decide on what changes you need to make to achieve your 6 month goals

• Find your cheerleaders

  • hare your journey with your close group of friends. These friends should be there to push you to follow your passions, provide your encouragement on the hard days, but also be ready to give you the hard truth when you need to hear it.

Re-Shaping Your Priorities

• Set aside time each day for yourself at least 30 mins
  • Unplug from technology and turn off thoughts about work. Don’t compromise this part of your day.
• Use the time you saved with convenience services on your own self-care
  • Examples: working out, train for an event, meditate or journal
• Go to events that support your passions and growth
  • Examples:  cooking classes, workshops at General Assembly, join a book club or volunteer
• Identify obstacles that can hold you back from the habits you’re trying to create and prepare with solutions for those times
  •  For example: meal prepping for the week on Sundays seemed daunting for me to do, but creating a menu of simple recipes for the week was manageable

Books To Read For Inspiration

• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
• Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
• Year of Yes : How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes

Learn more about Kathleen here!