Tuesday Happy

As long as I can see the forest, I won’t get caught up in the trees.  It’s safer up here.  I’ve always been a big picture person.  A 10,000 ft. view of life is a clear and comforting place for me.

Lately, I find myself questioning how I value my time, is there something else I should be doing with this short life?  What’s missing?  In the midst of tragedy or crisis, it’s easy for me to be grateful, to appreciate the predictable.  However, I find it takes a little more work and intention to find the extra-ordinary in an ordinary day.

I don’t see myself as an ungrateful or negative person, but still wrestle with the feeling of discontentment. I’m referring to a place beyond the basic need of food, shelter, and health—for these, I’m eternally grateful.   I’m referring to happiness and contentment that can be discovered in a typical, ordinary day of any given week.  Say, like a Tuesday.  Not nearly as fun as Friday, right?

We all have those ordinary mundane Tuesdays, filled with similar predictable routine—possibly not your favorite day of the week. While some days seem ordinary, it’s where I believe the real “work” gets done. The powerful place where many little decisions, behaviors and habits of our daily life are in action—creating a much more impactful outcome often not realized until much further down the road.  I’ve recently questioned how much I’m missing not spending more time on my Tuesday happy, underestimating the significance of a typical day.

I think there is a great deal to be learned from the awareness of daily habits and behavior and how they influence the larger part of happiness in life.  Showing up for the little parts of every day with gratitude, intention and purpose, making small incremental adjustments along the way, this is what makes the extraordinary happen.

When I am undistracted by the negative pull of discontentment in these smaller, familiar places of life, I can change the experience AND the outcome. For now, I’ll spend my time on the details, the little steps, the in between—likely the beginning of what’s to be revealed in the bigger stuff ahead.