Puzzle Pieces

I got this awesome puzzle for 5 bucks from Walmart as a "lets sit down and talk for awhile" thing to do with my husband. We definitely did not find homes for all 1000 pieces in one night, so I'm still drudging through what I thought would be relatively simple. I guess matching up puzzle pieces opened up my brain's creative thinking cabinet because I've been pondering all afternoon.
I won't bore anyone with the rantings of my brain, but I did come up with a nice analogy for my puzzle solving and my happiness project month of persevering (because not giving up is essential to solving a 1000 piece puzzle of which half the pieces consist of sand and sky.)

Start with what you know how to do. After completing my border, did I begin my puzzle with all of the blue sky pieces that look exactly alike? (well.. Sean did which is probably why he's no longer helping me.).. No, I began with the bright yellow sailboat because bright yellow pieces are easy to find and there were a limited number of them. If you have a long list of things to complete in one day, or even over a longer time period, don't start with the most difficult, time-consuming task. Start small. Finishing the yellow boat was an easy indicator of things getting accomplished, of progression. I believe people can only live so long in a fixed state before they feel the urge to move on and progress towards something. By the same token, if you work and work at something and you don't see any results from your hard work, its extremely difficult to keep working at it, right? So allow yourself to complete small things before you tackle the big ones. And when you do get to the big things, try as much as possible to break them up into small steps.

Believe it or not I'm still reading the original Happiness Project book. I got so busy this month that I didn't get to finish reading through my inspiration, but almost every chapter I've read has had the same self-reflection by the author "Is all of this really making me happier?"
Will crossing off "wash the dishes" from my to-do list really allow me to be happy throughout a tiring 6 hour work day in the sun? No.. no, probably not. But what I'm learning how to do is invaluable to my project, and if I can make it a habit it will become invaluable for my life. I'm changing how I go about accomplishing things that need to get done in a way that will boost the feeling of accomplishment at the end, while also avoiding being overwhelmed and discouraged. I'm never going to stop having things to do.
Just like I'm finding all of the things I love about doing an obnoxious puzzle (i.e. when the right piece happens to be right next to where it should be, how accomplished I feel finishing a sailboat, feeling like I have a real talent completing puzzles, etc.) I'm trying to go about every day finding something new that I love about this process. (It's a good thing that I love learning in general because that is often the only thing that I can identify.)

I have a new goal this week. Reading is a hobby of mine, and though I have a lot of other things to do this week, I want to attack my school library and find any book on determination, perseverance, and marriage that I can. I know that was a poorly worded goal, but I don't really want to put a number on how many books I need to find or read.. I'll just know when I feel accomplished. :)
 My marriage month is coming up in just 1 week! I'm mostly ready, and I don't feel too worried about adding new things because I've already tested out a few marriage-building goals this month.