A Secret

At the end of June, my co-workers, who I am lucky enough to call some of my best friends, bought me a present that says "Some Pursue Happiness; Others Create It." I'm looking at it right now on my dresser. (Thank you PROS, I love it). Even though this, literally, is just an 8x3 inch piece of wood with colorful writing on it, it means so much and these words are so important.

I'm going to go on a slight tangent.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" How many times did we hear this as kids? How many times do we still hear it now? The answer, for kids at least, is typically a baseball player, a doctor, an astronaut, you get the gist. But, why is there such an emphasis put on what you're going to BE when you grow up; not HOW you're going to live. What about that John Lennon quote:

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

Realistically, almost any job can be amazingly fun. Please, if the fish market guys in Seattle can have as much fun throwing around fish as they do, I think anyone can love their job. But, it's up to you to make your job, your life amazingly fun. 

My secret is to APPRECIATE and RECOGNIZE the little things in life. It's not every day that someone is going to hit a home or find the cure for cancer or travel to the moon. These hugely momentous events occur rarely, and waiting for something outstanding to happen is  a waste of other, perfectly good days.

Last weekend, I overhead a boy talking about the date he was going to take his girlfriend on for their 1-year anniversary. He planned to take her to Central Park and go on a horse-drawn carriage. Though it all sounds lovely, I tried to stop myself from vomiting. Not necessarily because of the actual trip itself, but because it almost seems like people feel like they have to one-up the other person with what they're doing, what they have. Like he was trying to be impressive with his romantic movie date.

The next day, I visited my boyfriend in Long Beach Island. We cooked dinner together, sat on the beach and read a book (Reading? Who am i?), went kayaking, and walked around Bay Village, where I bought nothing but half a pound of fudge. Nothing out of the ordinary. But, I had a FANTASTIC weekend. Why? Because I truly appreciated the little things that we did, that he did for me, and that I did for him. 

Guys, it's not rocket science. These "little things" are all around you, all the time. The fact that I'm writing this at 8am and woke up before my alarm is a little thing I'm happy about, and I know my day will be better because of it. I'm playing in a softball tournament tomorrow and I get to see my parents. My boss gave me a one-day extension to sign something because I was busy yesterday. My room is clean. See, look around you. Literally, do it. Think about today and maybe tomorrow and the things about it that make you happy. 

I think that the more times we do this, the happier we are. Now, we're looking for brief moments of life that are worthwhile and put a smile on our faces. So if you're having a bad day, or just a day, try to change your perspective just a little and look for those little things.