One day while I was searching the web as usual, I stumbled upon a rather clever idea, and I have decided to share it with you wonderful people. This very simple project that anyone can do is called a “happiness jar.” The first thing you’re going to need is a jar or some kind of container with a lid. You can get an old shoe box or an old pickle jar that you have at home, but just make sure that it has a lid. Now the idea behind the happiness jar is that every single day for an entire year you must write down something that made you happy. And when you finish writing that bit of happiness down on paper, you take that piece of paper and put it inside of your happiness jar. Then after a year has passed, you take that jar and empty it of all of your happy moments and then you sit down and read each and every one of those memories. When you’ve finished reading it, you’ll be able to see just how many good memories you have had over the course of a year.

Too many times we find ourselves complaining about what we don’t have. I know that this is something that I am constantly guilty of. I turn on the TV and see a commercial for something that I don’t have but that I want. I log on to Facebook and see friend number 100 getting engaged and I want that. I see someone walking down the street in a pair of extremely cute shoes and I want that too. And I know that I’m not alone in this line of thinking. We complain that we don’t have this gadget or that person as a friend. We’re upset that we don’t have that body or those clothes. We see the lives that other people have and we feel like we should be able to have a life like that too. We want, we want, and we want some more. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting more. But the thing is, that many times when we want more, that seems to be the only thing we focus on. We’re so concerned and so focused with getting more that we fail to see that we should be appreciative of what we do have.

When you focus on that new item that you just saw in the commercial, you often times fail to be appreciative for all the many items that you do have. When you are so concerned with everyone around you getting engaged, you may forget to be thankful for all the good people you have in your life. And when you’re wrapped up in the shoes on another person’s feet, you may stop being grateful for the shoes that you have on your own feet.

Having a jar that you keep your happy memories in is also a conscious way for you to find the good in your life. So many times good things happen to us but we fail to see that good because we’re too busy focusing on the bad things that have happened to us that day. But if you have a plan where you have to find something good that happened to you then you’ll be forced to realize that there are things in your life that you can be thankful for and happy about. And even though the jar just requires you to put in one happy experience from each day, you can do more! When you start consciously looking for something good that’s happened to you in your life for a given day you’ll start to see that there is more than just one thing that you should be happy about. You’ll start to see that you have more than just one happy moment from each day in your life that you could put into your jar. The one memory a day is just the minimum amount that you need for the happiness jar. At then end of the day, having more memories in your jar at the end of the year is just going to help you to realize that you have that much more happiness in your life.

Positive thinkers, it’s easy to forget about all we do have in our lives and that’s why the happiness jar is such a good idea. It allows us to see just how much good we do have to be thankful for.

So get out there and make a happiness jar…

Collect your happiness memories…

And see just how much you have to be thankful for!