Happy days are here

The 100 happy days challenge involves a social media user posting a photo on a daily basis of whatever makes them happy (done on the platform of their choice- either Facebook, Instagram or Twitter). The aim of the challenge was to help people appreciate the world around them more than they normally did.

So I was going through my Facebook today while I noticed that a friend of a friend of mine had critiqued the 100 happy days challenge. The criticism that my friend had to offer, in a way, if you thought about it, was sort of justified, but I’d like to say, it has more to do with the person taking the challenge than the challenge itself.

The people who came up with this project have no real benefit if people all over the world take up this exercise. Nobody’s going to get penalized if you drop out midway citing various reasons. The main reason this challenge was formulated, was to remind people that though there is so much that is wrong with the world, there is ultimately a lot to look forward to, a lot to be happy for.

I am taking part in the challenge too. Three days down, and I’m not going to cite miraculous differences in my personality or outlook on life, but every time I reflected on my day, thought of which photo to upload, it automatically made me recall all the good that happened that day [most of which gets conveniently clouded over by what went wrong in the same day] and it made me feel good about myself. When something makes me happy, instead of giving it a brief smile and nod, I revel in it, fully relishing the moment. If that’s not a good thing, I don’t know what is.

So be open… Take the challenge. The folks at 100 happy days would be more than happy to have you participate. They say it’s a life changing project, and that’s the problem. People expect miraculous transformations overnight. They don’t realize that life changing could also happen, one tiny step at a time, but as long as the change is happening and the progress continually moves forward, that’s honestly all that matters.

You can find the challenge at www.100happydays.com .