What Sparks Joy in Your Life?

Can a single question change your life and career? Absolutely, and if you're reading this then the odds are good you already are mulling over the right question. But let me give you the back story...

I'm reading Marie Kondo's book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. It's a slim volume, translated from the Japanese by Cathy Hirano.

My motivation is simple: my office is a mess, and I never touch or use 99% of the stuff that makes it that way. But my point is NOT to talk about physical possessions.

At the heart of Marie's system is the practice of physically touching each object you own and asking yourself, "Does this spark joy?" You keep the objects that do, and discard the rest.

Consider this: what if you asked the same question about each element of your life? Here are some examples of the ways you might apply this question:

Which of my personal strengths spark joy when I use them?

Does managing people spark joy?

Does helping others, perhaps without taking credit, spark joy? (Or do I have to take credit to spark joy?)

Does traveling spark joy, or perhaps cause anxiety?

Does collaborating with other people who have diverse expertise spark joy?

Now for the pushback. People will say there are many things you have to do: work, earn a living, pay your debts, support your family. Ah, but these are just obligations; your bank doesn't care how you earn the money to repay them, only that you repay them.

I used to earn a living being a consultant; now I write for a living. For me, writing sparks joy; consulting only sparked joy roughly once or twice a year. You can change how you work, earn a living, pay your debts, etc.

More pushback: "joy" may seem to many like a first world pipe dream, one that is unrealistic in the harsh reality of many countries and lives.

But even when you have very little freedom or choice, you can still control how you feel inside. If you know what sparks joy in your life, you can steal precious moments to treasure what you love the most. With hard work, focus and perhaps a bit of luck, over time these moments will grow longer and more frequent.

One of the things I like best about this question is its potential to free up time and money. By discarding the things in your life that don't spark joy - whether possessions or practices or people - you free up your ability to linger with those things that do spark joy.

You might also like my latest Forbes article: How to Avoid the Three Deadliest Career Traps

Bruce Kasanoff is a ghostwriter for entrepreneurs. Learn more at Kasanoff.com. He is the author of How to Self-Promote without Being a Jerk.