Every day is Groundhog Day at my house. I get up at the same time, brush my teeth the same way, order the same coffee from Starbucks, sit at my desk for 4 hours, eat the same lunch, sit at my desk for another 4 hours, eat the same dinner, watch the same shows on TV, then go to bed and start over again in the morning.
It’s boring and exhausting all at the same time. I just keep thinking “is this is? Is this what life is?” Surely not. Surely there has to be something more.
One of my friends is starting a business that’s focused on finding joy in your life. She asked me what brings me joy and I legitimately couldn’t think of anything! I was scared and embarrassed all at the same time. Upon further thinking (obsessing?) I found a few things:
Starbucks in the morning
Going to the beach
Concerts
Having coffee or dinner with my friends
The problem with my list is that I don’t do very many of these things on a daily or even weekly basis. So am I just not good at realizing what brings me joy (probably) or do I really not have joy or happiness in my life? Am I just doomed to live a sad and miserable life? OMG I hope not. I can’t take that.
Your life is what you make it
“Your life is what you make it.” I’m sure you’ve heard this. My parents used to say it to me all of the time. I hated it. I always went down the road of, “my life is crappy because I don’t have enough money,” or, “because I don’t have what I want.” So how can I make it better if I don’t have what I want? So much frustration!!
The older that I get the more I realize that my parents are right about a lot of things. And this is certainly one of them. You may not have all of the things that you want, but you can still be happy. Maybe you’re working on getting the things that you want like I am. Maybe you got the things you wanted and realized they weren’t what you thought and now you’re like, “what now?” I’ve been there too.
My Happiness Project
2020 was not a good year… for anyone. It certainly wasn’t for me either. I got sick with a respiratory virus in January 2020 and was sick with it for most of the year. I legitimately thought I was going to die. I had a terrible dry cough, extreme shortness of breath, was incredibly tired and felt like death warmed up. In January 2020, no one knew what was going on and there were no tests available. Over the course of the year, I saw 7 different doctors, took numerous prescriptions, had dozens of tests, all with no definitive answer.
It wasn’t until January 2021 that I got some real relief. An amazing and wonderful doctor at urgent care told me that I must have asthma because he could hear me wheezing from across the room. He suggested I see an asthma doctor. A week later the asthma doctor asked me multiple times how I didn’t die. Only by the grace of God.
Wake up
Sometimes it takes something like that, a terrible experience that makes you believe you’re going to die, to get you to wake up. We all talk about how short life is. Mostly we realize it when we’ve had experiences like this or when something really good happens.
The sad thing is that we just go back to our normal lives after that wake-up call though. We go back to the job that we hate, the friends that ignore us, the boyfriend that would rather look at his phone, the TV program that’s just on because it’s on, the social media that makes us feel so not enough… back to the same ‘ol, same ‘ol.
I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to continue to live in this perpetual groundhog day where everything is always the same and nothing ever changes because I refuse to change. That’s horrifying! I’ve done it for too long and it’s time for a change!
The Happiness Project
I read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rueben years ago. I don’t even 100% remember the whole book, but I know that I felt really inspired by it. I wanted to do my own happiness project, but alas, life got in the way. So I decided there’s no time like the present.
Over the 30 days in November 2021, I’ll be sharing my 30 days to living your happiest life. You can sign up to get FREE access to it here: https://www.infjwoman.com/happiestlife30/
Life is too short
It really is, especially if you are unhappy with your life. It’s time to take back control of your life and your happiness. Life is not what happens to you. It’s what you make of it. It’s time to make it full of joy and happiness!
