Who Am I?

Oh hi, November.  Did you happen to see October on your way in?  I seem to have missed it.

In case you didn't notice, there's a trend here.  Every few weeks or months I post something.  Usually the gist is that I haven't posted in a long while and I'm turning over a new leaf and this is the beginning of a whole slew of posts so watch out!  Who am I to go against the trend?

Actually, that is a good question.  Who am I?  Am I someone who would go against the grain?  According to the Myers-Brigs Type Indicator, I am an ESFJ.  This means that I am Extraverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Judging.  Yeah, I'm that kind of person.  Actually, I took a long slew of questions online that spat out a mostly different personality type (ENFP), but then someone had me guess my type based on some questions and I guessed ESFJ.  The descriptions were similar, but the ESFJ profile hits closer to home.

You might be wondering at this point why I have a Type Profile, who was asking me questions, and what I'm babbling about.  As my long road through grad school comes to an end, I thought it would be helpful to take a Career Assessment Course.  This involves taking a lot of tests to figure out strengths and weaknesses, what attributes I probably want to look for in a job.  After spending a looong time in grad school I'm not completely at a loss, but I think that identifying and articulating my strengths, weaknesses, interests and desires in the workplace is a very helpful exercise.

This course is also really helpful for me because this month is the first month of my Happiness Project, and I think planning your future in a way that increases your chance of happiness ties in nicely.  Yes, after months and months of dithering we're just jumping into it.  My sister and a friend of hers are also starting Happiness Projects of their own.  I don't have my whole project set up, but at this rate it was never going to get done.  This month's theme is to Boost Energy (yes, I am blatantly stealing the first month's theme from Gretchen Rubin, author of "The Happiness Project").  I'm trying to go to bed earlier (moderate success), eat healthier (also hit and miss), exercise more (success here), reduce clutter (I cleaned my office desk earlier today), and apply the mantra "if not now, when" while still referring to the Important/Urgent Quadrant.  I should reread 7 Habits while I'm at it...

My goal is to post every day of this month.  It can be something short, just a line or two, but I hope to do it every day, or at least every few days.  I want to start documenting the things that I do to increase my happiness.  Who knows, it might actually work.