Imagine waking up every morning and looking forward to what will happen throughout the day. As you take in a deep breath, you feel wonderful knowing you’re alive so you can enjoy what life has given you. That would be a great feeling, wouldn’t it?
That’s the way I try to wake up each morning. I truly see life as something to be enjoyed and each day represents a chance for me to feel great. After all, why would you spend most of your time feeling miserable?
Enjoy Today
There are some big things I know can make my day enjoyable such as when I’m doing something fun like traveling. But I know I can’t always be doing things like that. In fact, some days I’m not doing much of anything exciting at all. But I do tend to find fun somewhere and enjoy myself on those days too.
I’ve narrowed it down to six things I do on a regular basis that makes my life more enjoyable on an everyday basis. And these are things anyone can do just about any day of the week.
1. Learn to amuse yourself
It might be obvious to say, but the person you spend the most time with each day is you. That means you have the biggest impact on how much of your day you’re going to enjoy. The only question is what are you going to do to make your day better?
I like to think of funny things throughout the day such as a joke I saw in a movie or something that personally happened to me. Sometimes I think back on great memories or amazing plans I have coming up in the future. Really, it doesn’t matter what you think about as long as it puts a smile on your face.
2. Laugh at the bad times you’ve had
Everyone has gone through bad times in their life; it’s going to happen. When you think about them, your initial reaction is to feel bad or become angry. And that’s ok at first, but eventually you have to let it go. Otherwise you might dwell on them and make yourself feel bad in the present.
For the most part, I get over most of the bad times I’ve had by laughing at them. This is especially true for embarrassing instances. You can’t change them so why not just look back with humility and laugh at yourself. The sooner you can do that, the easier it will be to let those bad times go so you can move on to the better things going on in your life right now.
3. Cut out the destructive parts of your life
You can’t let destructive things come into your life. These are things that consistently make your life intolerable like bad jobs, bad relationships, too much stress and overly negative people. When you’re surrounded with bad things like these, you’re not going to enjoy the time you have during the day.
I know what it’s like to have destructive things making you miserable. I’ve been in both bad relationships and bad jobs before and cutting them out made my life so much more enjoyable. It can be hard to stop them if you’re entrenched in them, but you’ll feel so much better in the long run.
4. Find the thing(s) that drive you
There needs to be a reason for you to wake up in the morning. What’s your passion? Do you have something you can look forward to doing most days? Having something like this will drive your day and give your life purpose.
When you’re looking for something to be passionate about, it’s good to find something you can do just about every day. And make sure it is something you make time for. Even if you get busy and can only spend a few minutes on it, just spending that little bit of time can cheer you up.
5. Embrace your inner child
Think back to when you were a little kid. Did you enjoy yourself more even in places that seem ostensibly dull? Of course you did, children have a good skill in finding fun in just about anywhere.
You can find that skill again with just a little bit of practice. Think of your free time as time you can be using to play. Do something goofy or engage in some fun child-like behavior. It’s especially fun if you find another person who will do it along with you.
6. Appreciate the small things in life
Sit down and think about all the things you have going for you. Write them all down if you have to do that. It’s amazing how many things people have to be appreciative about, but still fret over one or two things they don’t have.
Appreciate all you have in life; you always have more than you think. I think it’s even better to go beyond that and simply appreciate life itself. It’s hard to enjoy each day until you’re thankful for what you have.
Enjoy Every Day
Life is too short to feel miserable on a day to day basis. Everyone should be able to wake up and feel good for what the day has in store for them.
But I know that you won’t be able to enjoy every day. Some days are just naturally going to be bad for you. But I always know that tomorrow will be better. And that’s a great feeling to have.
photo credit: Elvire.R.
Your points 2 and 3 are particularly important, I think, because negativity, which is the crux of these points, is just so destructive. I’ve learned you really need to cut negative people, thoughts, actions, etc. out of your life in order to be postive. I think learning to amuse yourself is easy, yet maybe some people don’t know how to do this. I love bicycle riding, going to the beach and traveling and do these things as often as possible because it feels going when you’re enjoying yourself. If you can fit a even a little bit of enjoyment into every day, life can become quite happy.
Yeah, negativity can be really destructive. I’ve noticed that even if you have a lot of really great things going on, all it takes is that one negative thought to just ruin your day. So I tend to cut them out as soon as they arrive before they bring me down.
I love those ideas for having fun. For the most part I try to fit in a little physical activity into every day since it makes me feel good.
i like your optimism
sometimes we need to be optimistic in order to really enjoy our lives and stop worrying
thank you for the post
Thanks Farouk, a little more optimism and a little less worrying can go a long way to more enjoyment.
Sometimes when ‘one’ (er me right?) stumbles onto blog postings like this there is a reason or resonance that can’t be simply explained….it just makes sense…
THANK YOU…
~ :)))))
I’m glad you found something in the post you resonate with. I hope you found something in it that makes your days more enjoyable.
Steve,
One question:
What if you just can’t get those bad things out of your life? Do you refer back to #1 and #6?
~Allie
Hey Allie,
It depends on what bad things you have. If it is bad negative people, I’d try to limit contact with them or cut them out. If they are bad thoughts, I’d try and change them around. Either way, feeling gratitude for what you have and remaining positive will help.
Hey Steve,
another weird karmic moment again… like you read my mind. I am in the middle of writing ’10 Ways To Enjoy Life More For Less’ – so again, similar – though a slightly different angle, and I came up with different stuff than you did.
Some of the other stuff you’ve written here I have also said before – one way or another, so of course I agree with every word.
Life is short – and we should be living more in the present and enjoying every moment.
What else is there really?
Hey Alan, that’s weird…one of us must be psychic and can read minds. I’ll have to check out what you wrote.
Yeah, living in the present and enjoying every moment is important. What else is there really? So true.
Hi Steve,
What a great post! Your advice was spot on.
I loved the point about laughing at yourself. I was thinking about this just this morning, and how I had done many embarrasing things in my life. However, I smiled at these thoughts and contemplated how even such events have contributed to my development, and helped me to reach the stage where I am.
I think that is such a good way to look at your embarressments. I used to get upset about them and the ones in my past would creep into my head and bring me down all the time. But you’re right that they contribute to who I am and now I look at them as learning experiences. It’s good to laugh at yourself and your mistakes otherwise you’ll just dwell on them too much.