For the sake of happiness, there are too much qualities about myself that I would like to have. I’d like to be radically focused at work, have more empathy towards others, speak less. I’d like to remember that my source of joy doesn’t come from one particular person, I wish I have more humility, and I wanted to call home more often.

So I did some goal setting activities on self-improvisation, outlining categories – God in the first column, family in the second, career, friends, and so on. Then I scored myself on them on a weekly basis. But there were too many things to remember, I got overwhelmed, and under-performing categories demotivated the rest. It didn’t last long.

For 2012, I am taking a different approach. I’ll go slower, I’ll tackle them one by one. Inspired by The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, I am having a theme for each month, on qualities that I wanted to have.

For January, it is the month of being content. It is important to start this journey knowing that I am enough. I am sufficient. Being content will prepare me for the rest of the other challenges. Most importantly, even if this whole project doesn’t really turn out the way I wanted it to be, I am still content of who I am.

Instead of scoring myself on the theme, I decided to do something that I do best – write. Every time an internal conflict arises, I turn to my trusty notebook and write about how I should be content on the matter. When I write about it, I am reminded of many good things – my comfortable shelter, abundance of friends, well-equipped intellect. By the end of the day, I realized that I have the honor to not just being content, but also being grateful.

Hopefully when I have write them enough, these qualities would be ingrained into my subconscious. They would become parts of me.

The first half of January has been going really good so far. Looking forward to another half, and beyond.