My Happiness Project - Personal Commandments

Currently, I am wracking my brains trying to figure out what to do for my happiness project. I've got a lot of ideas, and probably too many resolutions. The thing is, I'm trying to base my project off of the same outline as the project Gretchen Rubin uses in her book, and it's really difficult.

First, the reason I'm doing this project. I've found that since being home from my mission, I've been in a spiritual stalemate. I'm trying to get out of it, but every move seems dangerous. I just want to be happy. It's not that I am super unhappy, or even depressed. I know what depression feels like and climbing out of that is like trying to climb up a mountain of broken glass. While serving my mission I dealt with depression. How did I get out of it? Really, all I know is that somehow I'm not where I was, and I think I have God to thank for it.

In her book, Gretchen does a twelve month happiness project. Mine is going to be ten. Starting in October and lasting until my 25th birthday. She lists twelve self-made commandments, and has one vision for each month, with multiple (five to six) resolutions. Once she passes the first month, she combines those resolutions with the new ones and tries to do everything. However her main focus each month is the vision, until the twelfth month, where she tries to live everything all at once.

I've been researching about my twelve commandments this evening. Since I am Mormon and my religion means a lot to me, I've decided to try and base my twelve or ten commandments off of gospel commandments. There are so many things we are asked to do and become. Here are the examples I came up with.

The Ten Commandments - Bible Style
1. No other God's
2. No graven image
3. Do not take the Lord's name in vain
4. Keep the Sabbath Day Holy
5. Honor thy Father & Mother
6. Do not kill
7. Do not commit adultery
8. Do not steal
9. Do not bear false witness
10. Do not covet

Christlike Attributes
1. Faith in Jesus Christ
2. Hope
3. Charity & Love
4. Virtue
5. Obedience
6. Knowledge
7. Patience
8. Diligence
9. Humility

Young Women's Values
1. Faith
2. Divine Nature
3. Choice & Accountability
4. Integrity
5. Individual Worth
6. Knowledge
7. Good Works
8. Virtue

Be Attitudes
1. Be Grateful
2. Be Smart
3. Be Clean
4. Be True
5. Be Humble
6. Be Prayerful

For The Strength of Youth
1. Agency & Accountability
2. Dating
3. Dress & Appearance
4. Education
5. Entertainment & Media
6. Music & Dancing
7. Repentance
8. Service
9. Tithes & Offerings
10. Faith
11. Family
12. Friends
13. Gratitude
14. Honesty & Integrity
15. Language
16. Physical & Emotional Health
17. Sabbath Day Observance
18. Sexual Purity
19. Work & Self-Reliance

After making this huge list of things, I realized that I was going to have to really get down to the nitty gritty of stuff and make some decisions. I have this overwhelming urge to try and be perfect all at once, and I fear doing this project might drive my inner perfectionist crazy. In reality, I can't do all of these things all the time. I can't even do all of these things in ten months! At least not effectively. My main goal here is to be happier at 25 than I am now. To do things everyday that make me happier than yesterday. My goal is not to be perfect, but my aim is to be as good as possible. So with this list, and a lot of prayer, my own personal commandments will start to form. Then from there, I will start to shape my visions and resolutions for each month.

Part of my Happiness Project is to blog my progress, which means I will be posting frequently during the week. I make no promises as to how frequent, but they will be frequent enough. I hope whoever is reading this gets something out of it! Let me know your thoughts on The Happiness Project and any ideas for personal commandments below!