doing what matters

(Later addition: I have noticed this post is read much more than any other, and I am intrigued by this. I would really like to know who is reading this. Please add a comment. 21.9.11)

I want to start using this blog as a way of monitoring my progress, as I identify what is really important to me, and to act accordingly.

I read Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project about a month ago, enjoyed it, and I decided I wanted to do something similar. Instead of focusing on Happiness, however, I want to try to focus on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) principles of Being Present, Opening up, and Doing What Matters.

Unlike Art Therapy, which promotes self-awareness through creativity, ACT is a behavioural therapy, so it focuses more on actions than on insight.

This feels daunting at the moment. I am thinking about how I started this blog two years ago and didn't keep going, so I will need to remember to include blogging in my list of what's important.

Its going to be hard work and sometimes I won't want to bother. But I intend to try. Some of the areas I have already identified that I want to work on are:

• family,
• health,
• environment,
• community,
• friendship,
• creativity,
• leisure,
• frugality,
• therapy,
• home,
• emotional growth
• communication
• spirituality

That is thirteen, or a baker's dozen, which should keep me going for a while.

Although the focus of this experiement is not happiness, I did enjoy the ABC series Making Australia Happy at http://www.abc.net.au/, which was broadcast in November.

I took the online Happiness Test yesterday, and my Happy Index was 68/100. The optimum score is 75 or over, so I am not miserable, but could be happier. I thought this would give me a baseline to compare with any future scores.

I also did the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) at http://www.australianunity.com.au/, and got 75.71%. 75 is the average. This was based on 7 questions, whereas the ABC test was based on 40, which explains the different results. Interestingly, the PWI states that my age range, 46-55yrs, "is known to be vulnerable to low well being within our regular surveys". In addition, the ABC site stated that currently Queensland is the most unhappy state in Australia, based on responses of people who have taken the test. So apparently for both my gender and location, I am at increased risk of not being happy.

The ABC site suggests a task, which is to write your own eulogy, as a way of identifying your values. I will try to do this, as it is totally consistent with ACT. More later.