Once again this year as a part of my Yearly Bucket List, I decided to challenge myself to keep a happiness journal. This year though, I’m doing something a liiiiitle different.

To try to go along with my word of the year, I wanted to not only have this be an exercise in making myself recognize the little (or big) things that make me happy or thankful each day, but to really be purposeful with each day.

So what I decided to do is this: each day, I write out two of the three following things:

• Something that made me happy or something I’m thankful for
• A good thing that I did for someone else
• Something new I learned

I don’t want my days to slide by, with people coming in and out of my days without really being intentional about appreciating things, treating people well, and always pushing myself to keep learning and growing.

I was tempted to make this an Instagram or Pinterest worthy thing with cute colored pens (like my favorites – PaperMate Flairs!) & perfect handwriting, but I realized that completely misses the point. So while I am using an adorable notebook, the inside is full of plain pen ink & usually fairly messy writing. I want this to be something that helps me grow as a person, not something I’m doing to be able to post a photo later. And so far? I’m LOVING it.

I’ve already found in the short amount of time that I am starting to really intentionally think about what good, kind things I can do for someone the next day or what I can learn.

One of the things I’ve learned? Give myself grace for days (like just this week when I had the flu) when I only end up with 1 thing to write out rather than two. The point is to keep trying & to be intentional about it!!!

 

I’d love to encourage you to try this kind of daily journal or something similar that will help you live more intentionally too! If you try it out, be sure to let me know!