Ask Yourself This One Question Every Morning (To Be 800% Happier*)

Happiness is progress

Hello my loves! Today, let’s talk happiness.

Happiness Is Progress

A gentleman named Earl Nightingale once wrote, “Happiness is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal, or goal.”

And you know something? He’s totally right.

How many times have you felt the satisfaction of making progress? You step on the scale and you’ve lost weight. You’re not at your goal weight yet, but you’ve made progress.

Hands up if that feels amazing and totally makes at least the next twenty minutes of your day. *surveys resultant field of hands* Right???

How To Turn Everything Into Progress

So a few months ago, I read this article by Jenn Leach about website flipping, and thought it sounded super cool. I got a domain name and web hosting, a theme off Etsy, and proceeded to do nothing about it for months because I had other stuff going on.

Last night, I decided that I should actually try this whole process out. I went to the as-yet-unbuilt site and figured that the first step to building it was uploading the Etsy theme. I had no idea how to do this, so I did a quick Google search. The steps were pretty simple and straightforward. I did the thing.

It did not work.

I got an error message. Multiple times.

*pinches bridge of nose and inhales*

Needless to say, after the third time I was pretty frustrated. I decided to put it on hold ’til the next day.

Put a pin in this story, it becomes relevant later.

The Question of Immense and Eternal Happiness

I had a thought this morning. I cannot for the life of me remember why I had this thought this morning, but it’s the best effing thought I have legit ever had. It was:

“What if I started every day saying, ‘what am I going to learn today?’”

Why is it so awesome? Because it takes everything, legit everything, and makes it progress.

My experience with the website theme last night? When looked at through the lens of that question, it wasn’t an exercise in frustrating futility. I learned how upload a theme for a website. I had no idea of how to do this before.

It wasn’t “I couldn’t get this bullsh*t to work because the stupid servers were off.” It was “holy fuck I learned a new skill.”

And this can apply to, again, everything.

Conclusion: How To Use It

Dude, when you start your day asking this question, you have ensured your happiness, because you know that you’re going to make progress in something today. It turns your day into a game.

Example: I have a printer that keeps not working. I loathe and despise it, and tackling that printer felt like donning thumbscrews. I asked myself what I’m going to learn today. And today, I’m going to learn how to fix my goddamn printer.

I took a deeply distasteful chore and made it a challenge.

And if I can’t fix it today? Cool, I learned not to try whatever I did when I tackle it next time. Progress.

Not only does this question remove frustration and make you happier, it also makes you way more marketable. You’re learning new skills all the fucking time. Printer skills, website skills, even keeping-your-cool-on-call-waiting skills.

I’ll say it again — this can apply to everything.

I had that thought this morning.

And I think my life changed today.

*also I totally made up that number in the title