What Makes You Happy?
March 6th, 2010 | 
Author: 
A Daily Treat for Myself!
When I treat myself, I love an extra hot Venti Cinnamon Dolce Latte (sugar free) from Starbucks or a Diet Coke and Reese Cup. These simple little things bring me great joy and are truly a treat.
Last year, I was looking for a journal (a treat for myself) and stumbled upon this cool desk calendar. 3,650 Things to be Happy About, by Barbara Ann Kipfer. Being a lover of the million little things that bring joy to my day, I was intrigued.
One was opened, so I began to flip through it. 10 items a day, everyday. How very cool! Giggling with excitement, I decide to treat myself to this wonderful little treasure. 2 months have passed and I must say, it has been one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever given myself. I love tearing off the page, anxiously awaiting the next 10 things.
I have not always agreed with some of them, but that is to be expected as everyone does not like the same things. And then, there are the things that I have to “good search” to see what they are. (Sorry Google, Good Searching makes sense, as they help out my little non profit.) I have learned something new from this calendar nearly every other day! For instance, did not know what a Yurt was. Go on…Good Search it, if you need to. I did.
I decided to try and list 10 things a day for a week to see what I would come up with. Some have to do with things that happened on that day – others, are just random things that popped into my head. Here they are in no particular order:
Monday: Full moon hanging on a cloud, Gel Pens, soft Kleenex, board games, belly laughs, waking to a kiss, cool sunglasses, soft carpet, Atomic Fireballs, White out.
Tuesday: American Flag, rolling fog, cute note pads, making cotton candy, cloud shapes, Hot chocolate with marshmallows, Handwritten notes, roller coasters, forgiveness, Reese Cups with a Diet Coke
What is Wrong with this picture? It would be better if it were a BIG Cup Reese Cup!
Wednesday: Cute Socks, Chuck Norris Facts, Free Books, Puppies, Statue of Liberty, heart dangle earrings, unconditional love, hot soup, cute purses, lightening bugs
Thursday: Watching my children sleep, Anticipating Christmas morning, huge sliding boards, Ringling Brothers Circus, itouch, Animal cookies, listening to rain, Long lingering HUGS, Hope, Blue Roses
Friday: Little Debbie Cakes, homemade lemonade, reading poetry, Old books from the thrift store, Service Men & Women, Breakfast for dinner, Choices, PB&J with Glass of Milk, Disney Classics, hot peanut butter cookies out of the oven
Saturday: Toddlers that ask millions of questions, Being safe in God’s arms, Singing loudly in the car, Sitting sideways in overstuffed chairs, quotes, Falling asleep listening to the ocean lap against the shore, Watching my kids make the right decision, reading poetry, Policemen & Firefighters, Riding with all the windows down in the car
Sunday: Coconut Cake, Having the Bible ready available in hand or online, Universal Studios, Unsweetened Iced Tea, Monkeys on anything and everything, See sawing with a friend, Blowing Bubbles, Cute adorable socks, m&m’s, handmade bracelets
The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.–Henry Ward Beecher
These are just a few things that make me happy. What about you? Can you list 10 things a day that make you happy, so that at the end of the year you’ll have your very own 3,650 things to be happy about? What about listing 10 things a day that are simply happy things? For example, spaghetti dinners do not make me happy, as I do not like any form of pasta. But – being at the spaghetti dinner with smiling friends and getting warm hugs – now…that is happy stuff. See what I mean?
If you blog, I challenge you to list 10 happy things a day, blog it and then link back here. I’d love to read it as well as share it with others!
If you don’t blog, consider listing your 10 happy things a day for the week in the comments below. It will be wonderful to see the things that make YOU happy!
Again, I ask – What makes you happy?
{{{HUGS}}}
Posted in Spreading Joy, challenge, choices, encouraging, frugal, fun, happiness, ideas, passion, thanks | Tags: Animal Cookies, Atomic Fireballs, Barbara Ann Kipfer, Blue Roses, Capti, Christmas Morning, Chuck Norris, Chuck Norris Facts, Cool Desk, Cotton Candy, Cup Reese, Debbie C, Desk Calendar, Diet Coke, Dolce Latte, Full Moon, Gel Pens, Google, Great Joy, Greatest Gifts, Handwritten Notes, Hot Chocolate, Hot Soup, Itouch, Kleenex, Lightening Bugs, Lingering Hugs, Little Debbie, Little Treasure, Marshmallows, Random Things, Roller Coasters, Soft Carpet, Venti, What Is Wrong With This Picture, Yurt
Oohh! This sounds like fun!
I will start doing that.. because a lot of little things make me happy too! Here are ten things that really make me smile!
I liked this one. It made me smile!!
The zoo..( of corse!).. Mac-n-cheese, writing letters on pretty stationary, going to the mail box and getting cards, the Silly songs with Larry from the Veggie Tales, my elephant house shoes, diet dr. pepper, Zax sauce from Zaxby’s.. YUM! A new box of colored pencils, and seeing my favorite Twitter buddy every morning happy as ever! I will write these in my journal too. It should be interesting going back at the end of the year and seeing what all made me happy in that year! Way better to do that than just to think of the bad.. duh!
Thank you so much for writing about my calendar! The calendar is something that the publisher lets me do as a followup to my book 14,000 things to be happy about. But my website allows me to offer even more than a book could hold. It’s an endless project, an endless list. Cheers, Barbara Ann Kipfer
I love this idea and am going to ‘try’ doing the 10 things a day but can see where it might be a challenge after the first week or so. Am going to start with first one today on my blog
Twitter: spreadingJOY
:
@Sammy – Whahoo…so great to see your list here! I love it! Why does Elephant house shoes NOT surprise me?hmmm?? LOL. I bet your journal is full of amazing doodlings – as you are an amazing artist type gal! Thanks for stopping by! {{HUGS}}
@Faith – Wow thank you for that! I’m going to share YOUR blog link with everyone so they can check out your list.
http://byfaithonly.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-makes-you-happy.html
Yall run on over and see what she is happy about..you know you want to.
@FAith & @Sammy – even if we don’t do 10 a day – and manage to do 3 or 5 even…it will be so wonderful to look back at the end of the year and say wow..how blessed am I? right? I love the thought. Thanks for stopping and taking the time to comment.
*****OH MY GOSH**** I can NOT believe that YOU (Barbara Ann Kipfer) took time out of your busy schedule and commented!! That is going on todays happy list!! Seriously – you really made my day in doing that. [nods] thank you. I need to get your book 14,000 things to be happy about. I’ve looked for it in the store where I purchased my calendar and they never have it. They have your other books, but that is the one I need to get. Maybe I’ll treat myself in a few weeks…we’ll have to see.
I love your web site. Fun, easy to navigate and so many great things there. Want to list it here again too. http://www.thingstobehappyabout.com/
Thanks Barbara! Thanks for the inspiration.
[...] This post was Twitted by mcProdigal [...]
Wonderful idea! A friend of mine actually bought the book (14,000 Things to be Happy About)several years ago…we would go through and highlight all the things that made us happy. Love it! Here’s my post
http://www.talesofthetoot.com/2010/03/what-makes-you-happy-inspired-by-spreading-joy/
Thanks for the inspiration ; )
Twitter: spreadingJOY
:
christy Thank you for putting your link here! I’m sooo excited to share your list with others!!! I’m encouraged that this simple post could inspire others to stop and look at all the wonderful little things that are all around them every day!!!
Thanks Christy!! I truly appreciate you!!
{{HUGS}} of Great Joy
Thanks from sweden for this post
I savoured reading it. I need to read more on this subject…I am admiring the time and effort you put in your blog, because it is apparently one great place where I can find lot of usable info..
Thank you very much, I did really like the response to my thread, and post replies have been really awesome. It could have never been better. Even hiring someone for this could have never met the experience all posters here have, thanks for saving dollars and adding really good information to this post to make things really easy and workable for us. Thanks again and great work.
Hi
Just arrived on your website while looking on concrete and construction. It’s a horrible situation, this economy that we all seem to sink with it with.
Anyhow, I just installed this web browser, Opera, Firefox, Mozzila, Safari and I have to find a way to subscribe to your blog here, but I recive some strange message when I hit the feed button. Any Ideas?
See You
I know your secret too! I look at commenting in this way – since I’m relatively new to blogging, I always thought from the beginning that it was a two-way medium, where someone is starting a conversation that invites interaction, so I picked up the habit right away. In contrast, I’d think if some folks never commented when they first ventured into the blogosphere, it would be more difficult to jump in down the road (i.e. not a habit). Nevertheless, I agree with you on your last statement
Hi, Awesome blog you have here. I wanted to let you all know that I think Twitter is going to be one of the stronger networks because of the fact that it is supported by so many industries. I also think when Twitter introduces some of it’s new features, returning traffic will increase to show the real growth of the network.
Anyway, I build a site that gives away great resources for Twitter that are 100% free, so come and visit and don’t be a stranger.
Keep up the good work!
thanks,
It is advantageous, then, to have a repair service manual for your car, whether it is a Bugatti Veyron or a Hillman Imp. Knowing what has gone wrong with the car, and whether you can run the repairs yourself, is helpful for so many reasons. A good service repair manual will make it easier to drive with confidence, knowing that you have all the information you need to make the repair job less stressful, and possibly less expensive. MG Service Manual
Any motorist will know that, no matter how much money you pay for a car, how new or old it is, there will always be something that can go wrong. It doesn’t matter how rare the fault is, or how well the car runs most of the time, eventually something can go wrong – and when it does, you often find yourself having to hand over plenty of cash to get it repaired. Hummer Owner Manual
Excellent! If I could write like this I would be well happy. The more I see articles of such quality as this (which is rare), the more I think there could be a future for the Web. Keep it up, as it were.
Hi, This is a excellent blog, but I was wondering how do I suscribe to the RSS feed?
dispenses utilize a wonderful webpage decent Gives thanks for the effort to support myself
gives utilize a superb website decent Gives thank you for the hard work to guide me