Happiness Project April: Aim Higher

While March was a focus on love, April is a focus on Work. My least favourite topic, so this will be a challenge. This month will be a struggle for me, but I also think it will be positive. Since I technically have 3 jobs (day job, piano, student), I would like to focus a little bit on all of them.

Enjoy the Fun of Failure

• I can't be everything. 
• Failure doesn't mean I suck. It just means I need to try harder, get help or I'm not meant for that task.
• Enjoy the times I fail and see them as an opportunity to improve.
• Failure is hard for me. I hate having someone criticize me in a negative way. Not only do I know I've done something wrong, but the added bonus of someone pointing it out makes it worse. This goes right into the second resolution...

Ask for Help...

• ...when I'm stuck or am stressed. 
• This is a huge struggle for me. I hate asking for help because it means failure. And it usually results in either not receiving help, or being in trouble for not knowing something I'm already supposed to know. 
• ...when I feel like I can't do it all.
• It's easier to ask a friend or family member for help than to be stressed out trying to do everything myself. 
• ...when I need advice. 
• I ask my sister for advice a lot for piano. She's a great resource and always willing to help or just let me talk things out. 

Work Smart

• 30 minutes IS long enough
• a half hour is long enough to get a small task done, a chapter read or an email sent.
• Set up a study station
• With my nutrition course, I need to set up a station to study. Somewhere that my books can be left open to make it easier for me to sit down when I have a couple extra minutes to read a bit or answer a question (15 - 30 minutes IS enough)
• Packing and unpacking books is inefficient and cuts into those hour long sessions. 
• It also needs to be comfortable and away from distraction

Enjoy Now

• Make a list in the morning and try to focus on it. 
• I enjoy crossing things off, and sometimes get lost when I have no list. For dayjob, this is huge and something I really need to focus on. I've struggled with using an electronic list, a paper list, Outlook list. It doesn't matter what the media for the list is, it's using it that matters. 
• Focus on a song just to play rather than perfect
• It's important for me to play a song at the year end recital for my students. I need to worry less about making it perfect and just picking a song I like and will play for fun. 
• Enjoy reading rather than getting it done
• The last few years I've concentrated on the number of books I read in a year. With studying this year, I need to focus more on reading what I want and less about the number.