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I read a fascinating article yesterday in Huffington Post about how explicitly pursuing happiness can actually make you less happy. It enumerated four things we often do in our pursuit of happiness that backfire on us.
First, we try to figure out if we’re happy. This requires us to measure our happiness on a regular basis to assess whether we’re getting happier. In doing so, we begin evaluating our lives instead of experiencing them, which leads to greater levels of dissatisfaction. Second, we tend to overestimate the impact of certain events on our happiness. A promotion, a new relationship, etc. are perceived as things that will make us happier, but over time we readjust to the new norm of a bigger paycheck or the now mundane relationship and no longer derive the same level of happiness from it. Third, we perceive happiness as an individual pursuit, but focusing too much on yourself while neglecting the importance of relationships can have a negative effect. Finally, we seek out intense happiness, which is actually less fulfilling than constant moderate happiness because the peaks and valleys are too extreme.
These past few weeks have been absolutely crazy. I’ve barely had time to stop and think let alone write much of anything. Work ramped up in the new year, I have a show opening this weekend, so my rehearsal schedule has been intense, and my parents were visiting for two weeks, so I spent what little free time I had with them. This isn’t really anything new, for as long as I can remember I’ve been involved in many different things and there are always periods when it gets a little overwhelming and all I want to do is hibernate for a week or two. But something has felt different lately: I’m starting to get tired.
Just like that another year is gone and it’s time to make some new year’s resolutions. For the next month gyms all across the country will be overcrowded with people who made the resolution to get back in shape. By mid-February things will revert back to normal as over-zealous resolutionaries (best made up word so far this year!) lose their enthusiasm and return to their sedentary lifestyles. One of the nice things about having a blog is that by writing out my goals for the new year and keeping a link to them right at the top of my blog, I can’t pretend they don’t exist once my fervor has waned.
Now that another Christmas is past us, I’ve been thinking more about the holiday season, frugality, family, and giving. As perhaps you’ve noticed, I hate the concept of 
