You know, I’d been feeling like I was just going through the motions for a good while. Wake up, drag myself through the day, same old stuff, then hit the hay and do it all over again. It was getting pretty bleak, if I’m honest. I wasn’t exactly a ray of sunshine to be around, either.
So, I decided I had to do something, anything, to try and shift my mindset a bit. I’d heard folks talk about this idea of, you know, noticing good things, small wins. Sounded a bit soft to me at first, not really my style. But I figured, what have I got to lose? Can’t hurt, right?
I didn’t go all out with fancy journals or apps. Nah, that’s not me. I just started simple. At the end of each day, usually when I was winding down, I’d try to think of one good thing. Just one. That was the rule I set myself.
Man, some days, that was tough. Really tough. I’d be sitting there, scratching my head, thinking, “Seriously? Nothing? The whole day was a write-off?” But I stuck with it. I forced myself. Sometimes, it was something really, really small.
What kind of things, you ask? Well, it could be anything, really.
- My morning coffee actually tasting decent for once.
- Finding a parking spot right away.
- A call from an old buddy I hadn’t spoken to in ages.
- The sun finally breaking through after days of rain.
- Even just the dog doing something daft that made me crack a smile.
I didn’t always write them down, especially at the start. Sometimes I’d just make a mental note. But after a week or two, I did grab an old notebook that was lying around and started jotting them down. Nothing fancy, just a word or two. “Good coffee.” “Sunny afternoon.” “Funny cat video.” You get the picture.
And you know what? Slowly, and I mean slowly, things started to feel a bit different. It wasn’t like a magic wand or anything. I still had rubbish days, plenty of ’em. But it was like my brain started to get tuned in to looking for these little bits of good. It became a bit of a habit, almost automatic.
I found I wasn’t quite as quick to fly off the handle. Maybe I was a tiny bit more patient. It’s like, even if the day was mostly a slog, I knew I’d find that one little thing later on. It sounds daft, but it kind of took the edge off. I wasn’t expecting it to work, if I’m being brutally honest. But it did, in its own quiet way.
So, yeah, that’s my little daily practice. Still doing it. Most days, anyway. It’s not a cure-all, but it’s a small thing that seems to make the big picture a little less gray. Worth a shot, I reckon, if you’re feeling a bit stuck in a rut like I was.
