Make a Happy List and Grow It!

This month is Happiness Happens month. It’s a great time to think about what makes you happy. It’s a great month to make a happy list to carry with you through the autumn and winter months ahead. Make a happy list to take stock of the things in your life that make you happy, that you are glad and grateful for. Consequently, making a happy list will also help you pinpoint the things in your life you are not happy about. What can you change?

What Makes You Happy?

There are some general things that tend to make highly sensitive people happy, but at the end of the day we are all different.

What makes me happy won’t necessarily make you happy.

Happiness is personal.

Happiness is important.

But how much time do we spend thinking about what makes us happy? And more importantly, how much time do we spend actually doing what makes us happy? How actively do we try to change the aspects of our lives that make us unhappy?

It may be small changes we need to introduce to increase our happiness. Like joining a library. Or buying a notebook or some art supplies. Maybe it’s picking up the phone and calling our best friend more often.

Or we may need to make a huge change to alter our happiness level. Like a house move. A new job. Getting out of a toxic relationship. Taking a world trip.

In 2017, we moved our family from one side of the Netherlands to the other. It was a move away from everything and everyone we knew. We wanted a quieter pace of life. Smaller schools. We wanted more space. More nature. It was a calculated risk, with the increase of happiness as the ultimate goal. It paid off.

When you really focus on your own happiness the results can be amazing.

So take a few minutes and think about what really makes you happy. Involve your children. Make it a theme of your next family meeting.

Write it down.

Keep your happy list close.

What Hasn’t Made it on to Your Happy List?

Once you have a happy list, you can challenge yourself and think about the things that haven’t made it on to your happy list.

Is your job on the list?

Your home?

Your hobbies?

What about your social life?

Your relationships?

Your use of social media?

The hours of Netflix?

What changes can you make to grow your happy list?

Over to You

Share something that made it on to your happy list below. What things have you decided to change?