Mastering the Art of Joy

Today didn't start off with me saying "tomorrow better be a weekend." Those types of statements are generally reserved for days I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, caused by a sleepless night or being cooped up in a cramped doghouse.

While driving to work, I learned that my home warranty insurance was increasing without any additional coverage. After dealing with that, I had a conversation with an incompetent account rep at my credit card company. It’s funny how a guy who gets paid to answer questions could not answer any of mine and had to escalate the call to his supervisor.

Sensing a shift in my joy, I had to act quickly. To do nothing and let the bad vibes proliferate would certainly put the kibosh on my hopes for a pleasant Friday. Then, I remembered a recent conversation with one of my Emser U alums, James Bippes, who said, “An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship.” I correlated that to the start of my day to mean “the negativity of the world can’t put me down unless I allow it to get inside of me.” 

Thank you James for this wonderful reminder that life is too short to get discouraged or disgruntled about things that are out of our control. 

Sometimes we’re unhappy, but we don’t exactly know why. Even if our lives seem to be happy and successful on the outside, we may not feel that way deep inside.

If you feel that way, it’s likely that there are some things you should stop doing that are stealing your joy.

Here are 8 of them:

1. Worrying about the future
2. Agonizing over the past
3. Procrastinating
4. Trying to fix people
5. Worrying about what others think of you
6. Comparing yourself with others
7. Over-thinking your problems
8. Believing you need to achieve perfection

But you CAN change this—you CAN cultivate joy in your life by living INTENTIONALLY. You may not be able to control your circumstances, but you CAN change how you react to them, and that makes all the difference. If you can learn to create joy within yourself, you’ll carry that joy with you wherever you go, and through whatever circumstance you might find yourself, it WILL sustain you.

Let’s be childlike – not childish – by mastering the art of joy!

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