Happy x 100 = Making it all a Little Bit Better

A legitimate question.

It’s daunting to consider maintaining a happy state 100 days in a row. I mean, who is perpetually happy? Pollyanna? Normal people have good days and bad days. Nothin’ you can do about it.

As a rule, I’m extremely optimistic and positive, but I have my off mornings too. Those days when you wake up grudgingly and groggily…stumble and bumble out of bed only to trip over the cat who is winding through your ankles and screaming his brains out for you to serve his breakfast…then stubbing your toe bloodily on the dresser while wobbling desperately for balance…which freaks out the aforementioned winding and screaming cat, who leaps to his own safety to the bedside table…in the process, knocking over the water glass, which dumps over, drenching the other cat…who while adding his screech to the ungodly clamor shriveling your eardrums somehow manages to elevate himself on top of your leg… flaying the kneecap bare and bloody as he scrambles up your body like a tree…

Yes, actually a recent morning and…

Not. A. Happy. Day.

Thinking you can you can be Chirpy McHappy for 100 days in a row is just setting yourself up for failure.

But what if you could just stop and celebrate a moment of happiness, once a day, for 100 days?

That I have better odds of achieving.

I’m trying hard to take that instant, every day. To digitally capture something that makes me smile, touches my heart, makes me gasp at the simple beauty.

The 100 Happy Days Project is a social media challenge that dares you to find one moment of happiness each day for 100 days in a row, take a picture that symbolizes that happiness, and post it to the platform(s) of your choice with the hashtag #100happydays.

The project’s website states that 71% of people who tried to complete this challenge ultimately gave up, quoting lack of time as the main reason.

They think these people simply did not have time to be happy.

That’s kinda sad.

Hell, I’m going for it.

I’m on day 21 so far, and yeah, sometimes I forget to take a picture and scramble for my camera just before bed, but overall, I’m discovering that I’m never short for subject matter. I’m surrounded by a gazillion little things that make me happy every day.

Noticing these simple things, taking the time to stop and share them, recognizing that I am, in fact, quite happy at that moment…

…makes me grateful that almost all my days are pretty damn happy. And I realize that maybe it’s not such a reach after all, to aim for 100 of happiness in a row.