There’s a lot to be said for spontaneous joy, and keeping yourself open to it. But no less exuberant is an invitation to planned joy.
Ingrid Fetell Lee, author of Joyful, says Every year we sit down and plan how we’re going to be better people.. In the process, we forget to plan for joy.
As we train our sights on these distant hopes, the small joys can easily get lost in the shuffle. We forget to take the hour-long detour to the small museum, and instead waste the time scrolling on our phones. We forget to keep track of friends, and six months go by without a phone call. We forget about that new recipe we saw, and instead fall into a rut of making the same thing again and again.
When we’re children, joy seems effortless because someone has planned it for us. As we get older, we can either believe that life has gotten less joyful, or we can take charge of planning it for ourselves.
In this episode you’ll find stories of people who did this very thing, with celebrations of weddings and anniversaries and a 41-year-old man who took his grandmother on an epic journey to every national park in the United States. Lots of planning in there—and lots of joy.
Have a listen, and then plan some of your own—even if you need to schedule it on your calendar!
NOTES:
JOY LIST PLANNER:
Lee, Ingrid Fetell. “Plan for Joy, Not Just Goals.” Aesthetics of Joy Blog, December 29, 2019. https://aestheticsofjoy.com/2019/12/28/plan-for-joy-not-just-goals/
Baughan, Jill. Born To Be Wild: Rediscover the Freedom of Fun. New Hope Publishers, 2006.
Grandma Joy’s Road Trip (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/grandmajoysroadtrip/
Kucera, Caroline. “92-Year-Old Grandma and Grandson Are On a Mission to Visit Every US National Park Together.”GMA Newsletter, August 25, 2022. https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/travel/story/92-year-grandma-grandson-mission-visit-us-national-88406209?fbclid=IwAR02QSj4mBvJ2tsitO7d_-qLl44Dy0jpPrVyd75QWvninfzMM70ieFSC
Leder, Steve. “The Journey and the Joy.” The Power of Joy (Special TIME Edition), 2021.
