While reading the book The Gift of Imperfection, we came a cross an interesting exercise to understand if your goals and priorities are aligned with what ultimately makes you happy.

First we wrote down the list of things that give us true moments of joy, that make our face smile and give us excitement.

Then we wrote down the goals we are trying to work towards.

The good news is that they pretty much match.

What we need to work on is to make them a constant reality, a routine that sweeps away those bad days wasted running behind things that are not important neither for our happiness nor for reaching our goals.

These are our lists. What makes us happy & what our goals are:

 

HAPPINESS AND MEANING
Me	The Italian Wife
When the Wife jumps around in the kitchen	When the husband holds my hand while we walk in a beautiful place
When the Wife surprises me with a handmade treat in bed	When I cook something delicious
When I go on morning walks on a nice day	When we go see beautiful things in little stores
When I have a glass of wine in the afternoon	When we take a train ride and go explore a place with no agenda
When I feel like I am in great shape	When we stay in on a rainy day enjoying a hot cup of chocolate
When I can express a though by writing	When I am surrounded by flowers and fresh air
When I learn and feel I am improving	When I feel like I look pretty and in good shape
When I can help or inspire someone else	When we dance in the house
When I can buy a local, fresh delicacy	When we can stop on the road and pick or buy fresh fruit and vegetables
When I can pick my own food
GOALS
Me	The Italian Wife
Balance work and personal life through better time management, working smarter not harder	Keep on having lots of freedom and be able to independent from any physical ties or places.
Feel economically free and not tied to a location	Become a great cook and always make amazing dishes
Use my time and skills to make a positive impact somewhere	Always be in love and create a schedule that allows us to separate personal time from ‘work related’ time
Help others more	Be financially set longterm
Be more present
Not feel guilty to waste time through simplicity

 

---

 

In order to match these GOALS with what ultimately gives us HAPPINESS and MEANING, we developed a plan to stick to in our everyday life.

1. Get up (30 mins)

ME: stretching / meditation

THE ITALIAN WIFE: bathroom

2. Breakfast (30 mins)

When breakfast is ready, have at least 30 mins of time with just us, no electronics nor conversations about work are allowed

3. Before we turn on the computer

–       Write down a LIST of goals (for online business and our individual works) we want to accomplish that day on the computer.

4. 1^st hour on the computer

This time has to be dedicated to grow our online business, we will set goals together for that.

5. Gym

When online business work is done we take a break and go to the gym before we start working on the other goals

6. When all tasks are completed

We leave the house, go shopping, have a drink, or just go on a walk.

7. Dinner time

After dinner no more work is allowed and we will focus on one of these activities, either separately or together:

ME: reading, writing, studying Chinese

THE ITALIAN WIFE: cooking, staying in the bathroom

8. Around 11 pm

Dedicate time to online business for about 30 minutes. When dome we go to bed and either read or write together, watch a movie etc.