The last thing I searched for was a question on happiness.

I am not sure why, but lately, I have been hyper-focusing on it. I want to understand what makes people happy and what makes me happy.

I have been journaling for years now, but I was not intentional with my reflections anymore. Journaling felt like an obligation or a habit I had to get done before going to bed. As a result, I lost insight into myself, my thoughts, my feelings, my life, and my happiness.

So, I decided to do something about it.

Here is the video that sparked that fire in me to change:

Tracking my mood so far has been an interesting experiment. Unlike Matt D’Avella, I have not managed to track for an entire year, but so far, I am happy with this exercise.

A reflection summary of my day allowed me to take a step back and objectively see how I am spending my time. Am I being intentional with my days? Am I on track with the goals I set for myself? Am I doing what makes me happy? If the answer is no, declining other obligations has become such a breeze for me.

I always struggled with managing my time. In fact, if I could have any superpower, I would like to duplicate myself, that way I could:

• Spend time with friends;
• Spend time with family;
• Study for the CFA exam;
• Go on runs;
• Read my books;
• Play the piano;
• Play the guitar;
• Learn to code;
• Attend my pilates classes;
• Play golf;
• Play tennis;
• Post on my blog;
• etc…

The checklist never ends and I was overwhelmed. If I did not accomplish everything I wanted in a day, I would spiral into such a bad mental state. That is why, I decided to study my list. Did I need to do all those things? Do they equally make me happy?

Here, came my August mood tracker.

So far, I managed to track my mood for the entirety of August and the data allowed me to see what are my priorities in life. Then, I could adjust my time based on this information.

For those that are interested, here is my result from mood tracking:

Apologies for the ugly graph and table. I had to make them on Google Sheets because my Excel was not working.

Overall, after averaging out my scores, I was happy to see a result of 3.54, meaning I had a good month. It was such a relief because, on the bad days, it is easy to spiral and believe “I am an unhappy person”.

Moving forward, I definitely see myself continuing this exercise. It has lifted such a heavy burden off my shoulders. I have become so much more self-aware and a lot less hard on myself.

• It’s okay if you don’t complete your to-do list.
• It’s okay if you have missed a Pilates class.
• It’s okay if you have not been consistent with your CFA studies.
• It’s okay if you miss a blog post.

It’s all a part of the journey.