A little over three months ago, I began the 100 Happy Days challenge. For 100 days in a row, I posted a picture of something on Instagram that made me happy (you can see all of the pictures at @100happydaysoftay). I originally heard about this when one of our other Odyssey writers (Thanks Devin!) wrote an article asking if we could be happy for 100 days straight, so I decided to take the challenge.
I consider myself to be a pretty happy person, so I figured this wouldn’t be too hard. I can find something every day that makes me happy, right? Well, it was a lot harder than I thought. Not because I wasn’t happy at some point every day, but because it can be hard to single out something that makes you happy and then actually take a picture of it. I’m not a big picture taker at all. A lot of my friends are constantly taking pictures, but I very rarely think of taking pictures when I’m enjoying something. This was a constant problem with this challenge because I would always have fun doing something and forget to take a picture of it. Even though I often forgot to take a picture, the challenge did help me realize what actually makes me happy. It’s good to step back and think about what is making you happy in a certain moment. Maybe it’s nothing tangible, which is great, but just maybe it’s something you can put your finger on.
One of the best parts of the challenge is that when you finish, you can get a book made of all the pictures you took over the past 100 days. But the coolest part? Your book will be made when someone donates money to help you. You can pay to have it made for yourself, but don’t you feel so much better when you realize that you can help someone else, maybe even someone from another part of the world? A girl from Brazil paid for my book to be made and I paid it forward by helping someone else. It’s so easy to find happiness in the little things and helping someone else be happy is just a start.
My hope is that everyone will participate in this challenge, but that may be overreaching a little, so I’ll settle for this: I want everyone to take a moment and think of things that make them happy. It doesn’t need to be a long list and it doesn’t need to be extensive, just some things that always make you happy. Here are a few things that are on my list, if you need some help getting started: my dogs, Max and Anna; a cup of hot green tea with a little bit of lemon; reading a fantastic book; reading said fantastic book and finding one sentence that blows you away with how beautiful it is; taking a nap with my best friend; laying in the sun at Belle Isle. We all have time to be happy at least once a day.
