A hundred things for a better life
At the end of last year, when I was contemplating my intentions for 2020, I thought about how weight and diet had always been part of my life. In my ever-lasting search for weight loss truth, I even studied to become a weight loss coach. But the quest no longer interests me.
I tried to be someone like that, but it wasn’t me and it did not create a better life. I believe I mixed up my weight struggle with being a weight loss coach and when I lost quite a lot of money, I hoped to share that solution with others as well. So I studied and changed careers, only to find that it didn’t bring me what I wanted and needed.
What is the most important? It was pretty mind-blowing what was going on in my head because my True Self answered that question right away. Deep down I want an effortless life and to be happy. As I do not believe in sitting around feeling effortless, I thought about what might make it joyful. So I decided to make a list of a hundred things that made me happy. Just simple things, with a couple of hard things in between.
The meaning of the list is not to be finished by the end of the year. That would make it work. The list is a source of joy for when I need it or want to fill my life with some additional meaningful experiences. It took some time to make it, but I think I have some fun and joyful things on it and I look forward to taking on the challenge.
Over the coming months, I will bookend (report) about things I’ve done in separate blogs and strike them off my list. Some items will be a one time experience, and others may grow into habits. Let’s see where it will take me.
My 100 list
- Make a list of 100 things that make me happy and blog about them
- Declutter the attic
- Declutter the garage
- Buy a new house (and sell the old one)
- Set monthly intentions and evaluate them
- Pull a monthly card as part of the month’s intention
- Go to my friend Karen in the United States (scheduled for June 2020)
- Attend a workshop by Abraham-Hicks (scheduled for May 2020)
- Go sailing with Anton
- Visit the market in Groningen
- Visit the market in Leeuwarden
- Visit the Hortus Botanicus in Haren
- Create the effortless life food plan
- Go on a boating picnic
- Go shopping in Zwolle
- Visit a hammam
- Visit a new beach
- Visit a national park
- Add two extra levels of Swedish in Duolingo
- Bake a cake
- Eat a vegan meal
- Bake a sourdough bread
- Go to the movies with Anton
- Go to a wine tasting at AB’s shop
- Have a high tea
- Cook a meal for friends
- Grow tomatoes
- Declutter my computer
- Declutter my email program
- Meditate every day
- Draw a daily tarot card
- Do a self-love tarot experience
- Eat a healthy meal every day
- Plan my meals every day and bookend them with my buddy
- Go plogging (Google it!)
- Study astrology
- Do a full tarot reading every month
- Meditate for an hour
- Meditate for three hours
- Learn watercolor techniques
- Send someone who needs it a letter
- Send birthday cards
- Do an online course
- Do a jigsaw puzzle
- Do a full no-spend week
- Find a new podcast and binge-listen
- Bake a beer bread
- Declutter DVD’s and CD’s
- Do a maintenance walk-around before the house goes on sale
- Go for a hike with marrekrite.nl
- Declutter the websites
- Create a time-capsule
- Scan old photos and create a photo book
- Do the MyHeritage DNA test
- Go geocaching with geocaching.com
- Take a nap
- Have facial
- Donate three appliances I no longer use
- Research the family tree and find a cool detail
- Finish a difficult sudoku
- Finish my book
- Read a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel
- Watch an Oscar-winning movie
- Binge-watch a new (to me) Netflix series
- Write a letter to my future grandchildren
- Go to a sauna
- Play the piano
- Clean out my closet
- Donate stuff to charity
- Reread three books I’ve stored in the attic before I donate them
- Go on a weekend cycle trip
- Create healthy-er icecream
- Make cider
- Go for ten early morning swims
- Buy veggies at a farm
- Organize a barbecue party
- Plant something that we can eat from each year
- Make iced coffee on a hot day
- Create a meal in an Instapot or Slowcooker (don’t have one)
- Knit a thick blanket for cold evenings
- Attend a PV meeting
- Drink 2 liters of water every day
- Replant the Swiss Cheese plant (Philodendron Monstera) in one bigger pot
- Make a Christmas wreath
- Attend a Brussen Day
- Organize a Brussen Day
- Take new headshots
- Republish the tarot book (maybe in another form)
- Whiten my teeth
- Do a weekly evaluation
- Plan dinners for the whole week and get groceries
- Go canoeing very early when at the houseboat
- Write a fictional story
- Sleep in a weird B&B
- Donate blood
- Buy something cool from Etsy
- Connect with my spirituality
It is funny to see how I have seriously up-leveled my life already by deciding that happiness is more important than a goal weight. Since I made this list at the beginning of January, some things can now be stricken off because they do not feel right anymore. Activities like fast for a whole day are not conducive to what is right for me since I’ve concluded that an action like that comes from a diet mindset. Since I now have a happiness mindset, I’ve replaced it with Buy something really cool from Etsy.
Photo by Olenka Sergienko
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