5 Must-Haves for a Joyful Day
As I’m writing, it is Sunday, so that means tomorrow is Monday, which means it’s a good idea to know 5 must-haves for a joyful day. Because Mondays.
To be honest, I’ve never been an overly strategic person, but as I’ve been learning to juggle three part-time jobs plus a family, and desiring to grow one business wider and deeper, it’s essential I learn to strategize. That can flesh itself out to include my thoughts, my calendar, and my choices. And even how I will enter each and every morning.
Thankfully I know this is true:
The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
Because every morning is a brand new opportunity to seek out the Lord’s mercies. L.M. Montgomery said it best this way through a fiery redhead:
Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it.
Anne Shirley
5 Must-Haves for a Joyful Day
So here are 5 Must-Haves for a Joyful Day, which you can take with you into each of your tomorrows.
Gratitude
I’ve shared numerous times about gratitude, and sometimes have included one of my favorite quotes:
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It takes what we have and makes it enough and more.
Melody Beattie
In my experience, gratitude is active. It involves intentionally speaking, writing, sharing, showing, and extending thanks to people around you. Voiced into the air, a song of gratitude carries our heart and mind forward on its melody and has power to lift our head above discouragement. And being thankful on purpose is E-S-S-E-N-T-I-A-L to a joyful day, and I can basically guarantee your gratitude will help someone else have a joyful day too.
Goals
Long-term dreams can be broken into short-term pieces that move us toward what is to come. Because big dreams don’t just happen when moons line up nicely. They happen from hard work, moving along an intentional trajectory toward a desired result.
And just like our teachers taught us in school, large papers are written more productively and easily when based on an outline. Because a good outline is not haphazard – it is an intentional framework upon which an entire essay will hang. It is where the most essential work lies, because if the framework is weak or off-kilter, so too will the paper be.
- At the top of the year, outline the major dreams (perhaps 2 for family, 2 for work, 2 for professional development… be creative, and dare to dream!)
- Next, brainstorm: What are the big steps that lead to those dreams? Divide up the calendar into 2-3 big steps forward per month, per dream.
- Then, examine how each week will move toward each of the monthly steps.
- Finally, divide up the week into manageable, strategic bite-sized pieces to help lead in the right direction. Each day can be a joyful day.
Perspective
There is a comedian and art critic who hinges everything on this. He says:
I like to turn things upside down, to watch pictures and situations from another perspective.
Ursus Wehrli
Have you done that today? Have you tried to consider a circumstance from another person’t point of view? Or have you examined a micro situation from a macro perspective? Zoom out. Could you take something in from a different angle? Step to the side.
For me, letting JOY loose has partly been a journey in perspective. God called me to Joy Let Loose when I was decidedly joy-less. And He has walked with me through some messy parts of finding joy again by calling me to vulnerability in community, and acknowledgement of #reallife stuff. Sometimes it feels just like this:
God gifts us with a glimpse that actual Kingdom reality doesn’t look quite like what we see in the moment. He uses people to help us ask important questions that narrow things in or turn them around or magnify what matters. It’s often all about perspective, and in the change, we find a joyful day. So be open to a shift!
Perspective is everything when you are experiencing the challenges of life.
Joni Eareckson Tada
Flexibility
A fresh perspective begs for flexibility. We will be far less drained and far more joyful when we can roll with things somewhat. Not that organization, planning, or strategy need to be thrown out the window.
Remember the essay outline I mentioned? Outlines and plans and strategies are important. But sometimes the clothing that ultimately dresses the outline can shift, or be accessorized differently. Sometimes throwing an orange scarf in the mix that you happened to find in the bin at Goodwill is just the thing to tie the whole designer outfit together. Get where I’m going with this analogy?
I used to teach piano lessons. Scales, chords, sight-reading, classical music, gospel songs, jazz…all the things that I think are important for budding musicians to learn. But one key component I often included that many other teachers didn’t were moments for creative music making. I wanted to inspire the songwriters within.
And the best thing I think I infused into these little artists was an appreciation for flexibility. A “mistake” in songwriting is just an opportunity to try going a different direction than you intended. It’s an invitation for beauty you didn’t anticipate.
Be flexible. Find beauty in changing direction today. A joyful day just might live there.
Laughter
A joyful day absolutely MUST hold laughter. I mean, they basically have to go hand-in-hand, I think. Even the hardest days can hold joy, after all. Even grieving days can have levity, and the most stressful days can find a chuckle somewhere. It’s important for our overall wellness.
I doubt I have to champion the benefits of laughter for you. But I may have to provide a reminder for you to seek it out if you want to have a joyful day. Check out that linked article for some great ideas for being strategic about laughter, mm-k?
And I’ll just say this: laughter is generally best when experienced with others. So in my encouragement for you to laugh everyday, I’m really saying this: get around other joyful people everyday. Joy begets joy. Laughter inspires laughter. If you don’t got it…go get it!
No day is complete without a belly laugh, amirite?
Go Get That Joyful Day!
Gratitude + Goals + Perspective + Flexibility + Laughter = the perfect storm for a joyful day. Let’s be strategic about letting JOY loose.
Tell us in the comments below what you plan to do to find your joyful day!
