I'm taking a class where my professor makes us say a positive before the start of each class. At first this was kind of annoying and I thought it was odd that she did it, but as the semester has gone on it has become something I really enjoy.

There are a lot of aspects of my life where I truly cannot find any positives. There are times that are just so low that I think there's no way joy can be found in this, but then I started to realize that not everything has to be perfect for it to bring me joy.

We define our joy based off of things going right and our lives playing out exactly how they should. We set up expectations and try to measure our joy, but that's not how it should be. Our joy and the good things in our life can't be measured or compared. They are unique to us and that is the best part of them.

You can find joy in the rain by reminding yourself that once the rain leaves there is always a rainbow.

You can find joy in doing poorly on a test by knowing what to do differently for the next one.

You can find joy in losing a friend by telling yourself that everything has a season and not all seasons are meant to last forever.

Heartache happens, mistakes happen, failures happen, imperfections happen, but in all of that so does joy. All of those things that drive us mad or tell us we aren't enough always come to an end. Even though we don't always see it we can be confident that there will be joy.

We can see that even little wins are wins. And that the small things that make us smile are still things that make us smile. We can take things for how they are and not expect them to be any more or any less. It is okay for us to get happy about finding a penny on the ground or simply having someone hold the door open for us.

When you let things that are little be things that bring you big joy than your life doesn't seem as dull. Force yourself to say a positive about the day or yourself and make it a habit that brings you joy.