Happiness

It’s FIXING the Little Things in Life that Matters

Want to be happier? Fix the little things that bug you.

When I finally wiped down the mud spattered, oil fingerprint laden, spider web coated door that leads from my garage into the laundry room, I felt such a sense of relief and fulfillment. It had been bugging me for awhile (awhile being 10 months or so). In and out of the door half a dozen times a day or more, I’d look at the mess and think “Hey, I should clean that” but when carrying groceries, work stuff, whatever, I just never made time.

Science says happiness is part genetic, part environmental, and part our thoughts and actions. Fixing small irritations in your environment can help increase happiness dramatically. And happiness is linked to increased health and wellbeing, including cardiovascular markers like blood pressure and heart rate. Photo by Konstantin Evdokimov at Unsplash.com

And then I remembered a tidbit from a grad class I audited with Dr. Sarah Tracy at ASU years ago. The course was all about happiness and wellbeing (yes, I know, a graduate seminar about happiness–delightfully novel). Among other things, we discussed how to increase personal happiness levels. While working on my dissertation at the time, I expected (and experienced) dismally low levels of overall life satisfaction. (Dissertating is no spring picnic, people.) But one concept really stood out: An easy way to increase happiness is to take care of life’s little annoyances.

The dirty garage door? It bugged me every. single. day. For TEN months. And when I finally did something about it? Relief. I no longer see the door and it no longer annoys me. Magic!

Lately, life has felt crazed again with teaching, work, book proposal writing, etc. So today, I’ve walked around the house and fixed three more annoying things. (Let’s see if anyone notices that my desk is uncluttered for once, or that the produce drawers are debris-free, or that the Japanese Maple branch that stuck out into the walkway and hit people is gone.)

These little tweaks took just a few minutes and I’m SO excited to have them out of my consciousness (for awhile anyway, crumbs and clutter and tree branches will come back, of course).

What little annoyances do you want to take care of today?

Originally posted at www.bluestmuse.com and adapted slightly.

P/S Want to learn more about the science of happiness? Check out this article with research about how to be happier and why you should prioritize happiness and wellbeing.