What gets in the way of joy? Mostly, little stuff. As humans, we deal surprisingly well with crises. What really gets in the way of our everyday happiness is the everyday “stuff” we allow ourselves to focus on. You know, the petty annoyances, irritations, and unexpected hiccups of life.
Like that supervisor who never, let me repeat, never shows up to meetings on time, which means everyone has to sit around waiting for 15 minutes or more, no texting or phones allowed, while you have a mountain of work to plow through on your desk. Considering how useless you think these meetings are in the first place, those 15 or so minutes are extra annoying. But the worst of it is that you carry the annoyance throughout too much of your day. If anything, you start to find everything and everyone annoying. What a waste!
Or the car that cut in front of you, without bothering to use their turn signal or any other warning, setting your teeth on edge. It happens repeatedly, in one form or another, as too many drivers appear to think they are the only ones on the road, totally entitled to driving however and wherever they want, without regard to other drivers. You then carry that annoyance with you for too long after.
I could go on, but you know what I’m talking about. In the end, you’ve managed to erode some of the joy that you could otherwise have had in your day, sometimes substantially. And yet, as long as someone isn’t harming you directly, those annoyances could just be shrugged off. You could spend those supervisor “lost minutes” figuring out a new recipe, or remembering a shared moment with your partner. Not all of life is on our phones. Ok, so that’s debatable, but there is life apart from what’s on our phones!
Same with rude drivers. You know they exist; you know you will encounter some, so why give them any more of your valuable attention other than simply driving carefully yourself?
Your joy, your everyday happiness, is very much in your control. It has more to do with attitude, with how you choose to look at various occurrences, than it does with those occurrences themselves. Next time something irritates you, consider just letting it go. Immediately. Done. And then go on to have a pleasant, productive, happy day.