Write Down Happy Things!

We have all had days which were simply ... crap. Even the smallest thing decided that it should go wrong: Your car won't start. Office won't open. Your WiFi broke. Your favourite shirt got eating by the washing machine. Your pencil broke. The data-stick with your long story has a glitch. And, of course, you cut your finger with a knife.

In your mind the best thing is to drag your tired body back home and curl up in a far corner. Suddenly, all the bad things that have ever happened come floating back to you, reminding you of the time you farted and sneezed at the same time in school.

Now, let's be serious: days like the above are rare. Yes, they exists, and yes, they suck. Big time. Usually, you'll have days and even weeks which are a mix of the two. The other week I had such a horrible day when everything decided to go wrong. I wrote endless pages into my diary complaining about it, complaining that, of course, the coffee machine had to break! Why can't I think of a reasonable way to plug that blog post? Really Sir Cat, did you have to throw up in my new shoes?!

Then I went to bed, cursing the world and the universe. I woke up the next day, went into it and it was all right. The day after this was good. And the one after that was much better! I had had brilliant moments, and fantastic moments. I was brimmed with energy and motivation. Until, inadvertently something silly happened ... again.

So I grabbed my diary again, ready to scribble things into it. Angry and frustrated things. This is when I noticed something: When I started writing diaries, I used to write into them every single day. Even if it was just "today was quite boring and nothing happened. I petted the cat. Status: A-okay." Lately I had only used it to get rid of frustrations and whine about my shirt that shrunk in the washing machine. When I would read through it, I got the impression that everything was rubbish.

While there is a point in writing off frustration, I really think that only doing so is not the right way. You already got hung up on small faults. But I had a brilliant day, with only a minor crack in it. I should write it down as such!

Thus, I grabbed the nearest pencil and set off! Of course, I started with the crack. I explained what it was, and why it bothered me, as I was writing it began to wear off. Suddenly the crack was nothing more than a scratch that you could polish out.

Instead of stopping I decided to go on. I wrote about the amazing chat I had with a friend and that I was really excited about a new story idea, or that the weather is lovely now because the flowers start to bloom. I wrote about someone enjoying my writing, and most of all, that I could pet a dog while at work:

A hard to capture but adorable dog

Suddenly, the day was represented the way it should have been: a wonderful and joyous day with only a minor fault.

I decided that from now on I am going to write down happy things when they happen. It is never going to be "that day was nice, I don't need to write into the diary." It is going to be "that day was nice which is why I need to write into my diary!"

Write down the happy things! I can't stress this enough.

If you have an absolute crap day that could only get worse and worse, remember that tomorrow is going to be better. ❤