Most of your life will not be extraordinary

I came across this quote on Instagram recently and I saved it because I wanted to share it with you all.

In case someone is using a screen reader and that doesn’t translate, the quote says,

“Most of your life will not be extraordinary. Most of your life will be simple things, done regularly. If you are only going to be happy:

• when you’re on vacation
• after a lush payday
• after a big career win

…you’re going to spend most of your life really dissatisfied.

You either learn to love the day as it is, or you don’t learn to love life at all.”

I don’t think this quote was written with a frugal audience in mind, but I think it is super relevant to the contented living we talk about so often here.

It reminded me a little bit of that post I wrote about really, truly enjoying things.

Since most of your life will be simple things, done regularly, then learning to savor and appreciate the simple things is likely to increase your happiness!

And while “learn to love the day as it is” sounds a bit like a serious exercise in self-discipline, I think of it as something more like…a practice in delight.

I don’t think we need to learn to find delight in scrubbing toilets or sitting in traffic; that would be rather delusional.

Instead, I think the key is finding the bits of wonderful sprinkled in among the everyday, monotonous things in life.

Three “practicing delight” ideas

I am sure there are a multitude of ways to get good at practicing delight in the everyday, but here are three that work for me.

1) Take pictures

I really think that photography has upped my noticing skills!

Because I take pictures so often, I notice beautiful scenes, a colorful leaf, a beautiful water droplet, a lovely ray of light, a wispy bit of steam, and so on.

2) Make a list

I do this mostly on Thankful Thursdays, but all throughout the week, my look-for-things-to-appreciate radar is working, collecting things to share with you all. 🙂

This radar helps me notice ordinary things that I can enjoy all the time at little to no cost; a brilliant blue sky, a refreshing shower, a cozy bed, a hot cup of coffee, a delicious sandwich, a cozy hoodie.

3) Tell someone else

When my kids were younger, sometimes at dinner I would have them share the best and worst part of their day (a fun practice when you have a tableful of people!), and that’s a simple way to get into the habit of noticing at least one good thing in each day!

I also routinely tell Zoe about delightful things I notice*; I don’t know if this habit makes me notice things more, but sharing a joy with someone else does usually amplify the delight.

*Just yesterday I was like, “Oh my gosh, I’m so happy it’s sunny! That’s two mornings in a row that were forecast to be cloudy but they were sunny instead.”

Doing Thankful Thursday posts combines all three of these very nicely; I take pictures, I make a list, and I share it all with you guys. 😉

How do you find delight in the ordinary days?

P.S. Because I know someone will read this and think, “This is toxic positivity! Some days just suck.”…yes, it is true. Some days are pretty much terrible from start to finish. But in my personal experience, a lot of days do hold little delights, and I find it to be worth my while to hunt for those delights.

Life has both good and bad, hard and easy, misery and delight; there is room to acknowledge both. 🙂