AN EXERCISE TO UPSIZE YOUR HAPPINESS

AN EXERCISE TO UPSIZE YOUR HAPPINESS

This exercise is from http://lauriecalzada.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/downsize-your-life-to-upsize-your-happiness.

„Get a cork board, push pins, pad of small paper, 2 pieces of string, and three colored pens (Blue, Red and Green).  Find a quiet place by yourself or do this with your spouse.

Divide your cork board into three columns.  Cut two pieces of string and divide the corkboard into three sections.  Use the push pins to attach the string at the top and bottom.  Then, take three pieces of paper and make three labels for the top of the columns as follows:

Column 1: Perfect Size – This is in blue. These are the things you want to stay the same.

Column 2: Downsize – This is in red.  These are the things you need to downsize in your life.

Column 3: Upsize – This is in green.  These are the things you need to upsize in your life.

Write one item per piece of paper in the corresponding pen color and tack it to your board.  It can be as simple or complex as you want it to be.  Remember, this is YOUR board.  I am not just talking about monetary items. They can be anything you want.  Also, you might find that in order to Upsize one area of your life, you need to add an item to your Downsize column.  For example, if one of my Upsize items is to “attend my son’s baseball games,” then in my Downsize column, I would probably have “leave the office by 5:00 pm.”  Or let’s say in my Upsize column, I have “buy a family van.”  In my Downsize column, I might have “only eat out once a week (saves money for the van).

Once you have completed your board, place it somewhere where you can see it every day and many times in a day.  Mine was in my bedroom, so I saw it every morning when I woke up and I looked at it every night before I went to bed.

As you successfully Downsize or Upsize things, move those items to the Perfect Size column or discard them, whichever is more appropriate.“

You can do this on a plain sheet of paper, too. The important thing is to visualize your goals. That means, draw them, write them, make a collage out of them, use fotos instead of words. You could even use sticky notes stuck on a door.