Joy Modules

Joy Modules.

I made this up. But stick with me for a bit. 

At some point, you realize you need joy. And yes, it’s a stupid word, but it’s short and you get the point. Joy can come from damned near anything. People, hobbies, accidents, being in nature, driving, riding a motorcycle, animals, blah, blah, blah. 

But let’s take a minute to really break this joy thing down and clearly define it. I’ve come up with a handy numbered guide.

1.  You look forward to it.

2.  You feel butterflies inside thinking about it.

3.  You want to do it.

4.  You don’t want to stop.

5.  If you’re stressed out, you can visualize that thing that gives you the joy and it’ll give you joy and you won’t be stressed out.

That last one is probably the most powerful if you know how to visualize something. We’ll get to that later.

Understanding your Joy Modules (and yes, I made that up but it’s so good I already bought the URL) is essential to your overall happiness. When you take the time to look at all the people and activities in your life and write down the things that truly bring you joy, you realize that putting more time and energy into your Joy Modules will make your life happier and better. The people and things that either don’t bring you joy or genuinely harsh your mellow can be minimized as much as possible.

It then becomes a very logical and clear choice. 

Establish your Joy Modules and spend more time engaged with them. If there are people that truly bring you joy, reach out to them more often and spend time with them. If it’s an activity, spend more time doing it. If seeing live music brings you joy, go through the effort every other week. If it’s walking in the park, playing tennis, skiing, swimming, watching sunsets… Whatever the hell it is, do it more.

It’s not easy.

It’s easy to be lazy and do nothing and have less joy and more melancholy and slip into a dreary existence and then bitch about it so much that nobody wants to listen to your bullshit and you slip deeper into your malaise.

It’s hard to be happy, but it’s worth it. 

I wrote this because I had a bit of an epiphany the other day.

I realized that my Joy Modules have been evolving lately. 

I realized that I get joy by attempting an accomplishment that I have no idea how to accomplish—tilting at windmills if you will. I realized that I really do love to write. I write stuff like this, ideas that come across my mind that I have to share. 

I started writing a screenplay and realized I wanted to write a novel to go along with the screenplay, so I just started writing it. I carry the story around in my head all day and sit down and just pound it out for hours at a time. 

It makes me happy to think about and do it, so that’s a powerful Joy Module.

I like riding my motorcycle. That intense concentration to keep from getting squashed, coupled with the other part of my brain that's always writing stories, mixed with the sound of a loud Harley is a great Joy Module.

I have people in my life that bring me joy. 

I like travel, hiking, going outside so forth and so on. 

I’ve rounded these things up, and I’m making a conscious effort to do more of these things and less of the stuff that harshes my mellow.

And it works. It’ll work for you, too, and the utter simplicity is so stupid you’ll smack yourself upside the head.

1.  Think of the things that bring you joy.

2.  Number them from Most Joy to A Little Less Joy.

3.  Do more of them.

Who would have thought the key to happiness was so damned simple.

And reevaluate your Personal Joy Modules on a regular basis. They will change and evolve constantly throughout your life. Let them. Embrace the new and be a happier human being. It’s the only logical choice.

Amen.