It is not news to anyone reading this: working in a library is hard. Doing any kind of public-facing customer service work is always hard, and right now a lot of things are coming together to make it more complicated.

We can’t fix that for you. Sorry.

But this semester, we are going to provide small weekly stress-management/happiness builder ideas. They aren’t going to make all your issues magically solve themselves. But, everyone can use a reminder to take a step back and breathe.

What do you want to do?

If you had time, money, resources – what sounds like it would be fun for you? Do you want to go to a concert? Build a doghouse? Go shopping? Fly to Paris? Paint the back steps?

Pick out something you want to do, and start making some plans to get there. Do you want to take a long vacation? Is that something you can do in the next few months? If not, maybe make plans for some steps you can take now to get there.

Let’s say you want to go to Paris. You read a book about it as a kid, it stuck in your brain, and you always wanted to do it. There is so much to do, so many things that need to happen. So, what can you do this week to get started?

• put a date on your calendar for a year from now, or that next summer
• find the application for passports and get that filled out
• decide who is going with you, if anyone
• how long would you want to stay?
• get language downloads to start learning French
• start browsing tourism sites to see where you might want to go in Paris
• think about your budget, and start setting aside money each week
• look at hotels and reviews
• get paper maps, and start studying streets and trains
• get a cookbook from the library and practice some French cooking

This sounds like a great trip, and the week (or two? or more?) that you spend in Paris will be so fun – you will remember it forever.

But the fun is so much more than that. For most things we will enjoy, making the plans for it is a big part of the fun. Today you aren’t going to have the big trip; but today you can do something else that gets you closer. You can visualize things you will do, and enjoy all the work you will do to get ready for Paris.

This works even with smaller goals! Remember that possible goal of painting the back steps? Work on some anticipation for that goal:

• spend time browsing through paint colors you might like
• look for your painting tools, or start making lists of tools you need
• browse some home improvement magazines
• watch some videos on painting techniques
• check the weather for rain, or other weather issues that may be problematic

When today is hard, it feels good to have that goal out there you are working toward – a future happiness in the bank that spreads some happy feelings backward in time to us today.