The last year or so has been a little rough for me. I just haven’t quite been my usual optimistic self. I wouldn’t say I’ve been depressed, because I’ve never been clinically diagnosed with depression, but I will say that I’ve been suffering through a long bout of melancholy. This is not so unusual for me, I’ve struggled in the past, but it has never been so prolonged. I’m not going to be more specific about it, but I will say that I’m pretty sick of feeling so down and I’d like to do something to change it.

I’m not entirely sure what to do about it. I think that some of the causes just aren’t really things that can be fixed, or at least not any time soon. But I do know that there are some contributing factors that can probably be addressed.

I recently started reading the Happiness Project blog and I’ve become convinced that I should start my own Happiness Project. The blog’s author, Gretchen Rubin spent a year working on her own Happiness Project and wrote about it in her book by the same name that was just published and is now on the bestseller list. Josh just bought me the book as an early birthday present (my birthday is Feb. 5) and I decided to follow along with her month-by-month journey in the book. She is also hosting a Happiness Challenge on the blog that is going to follow her strategy in the book.

So each month I’ll write a post at the start of the month about the strategy for the month and then I’ll post again at the end of the month to let you all know how it’s going.

I’m going to follow Gretchen’s strategies, but I’m obviously going to have to alter them to suit myself. While I think that I have some similar problems as Gretchen, I think that I’ll have my own different stuff to work on as well. So I’ll be making some adjustments as we go.

I’ll get in my first month’s post later this week. Wish me luck!