Life. The Grand Production.
And it is grand.
But sometime we white-knuckle it. Sometimes we grit our teeth and endure it.
It’s hard to be joyful when the richness of your life is shrouded with drudgery. It’s hard to be joyful when you are focused on the misery of your commute, the interest rates you pay on your credit cards, the heavy snow you need to shovel….
Sometimes we simply don’t “get” our lives. We don’t enjoy it.
That was me. I had a successful career in advertising, logged the hours, satisfied the clients, and apparently reaped the rewards…
…but I kept waiting for a sense of accomplishment to come. I waited for delight to visit my career and my everyday existence. I waited for meaning to make an entrance. I waited for joy to arrive.
They were no-shows.
It was only after my mother’s death that I heard – truly heard – her mantra for the first time:
Don’t postpone joy.
So I didn’t.
I started soul-searching…and found some answers. I switched careers. I excavated and uncovered and lived my values. And I made joy a daily practice.
Because joy isn’t just the reward for a job well done. It isn’t the thing that only comes at the end of the journey.
Joy is fuel. Joy is a tool. Joy is a way to and a way through. Joy is now.
Don’t postpone joy. Live it. Right now.
The Joy Pages is my tribute to my mother…and to you. It’s not simply a treatise; it’s a workbook. It’s your guide to the good life, now. It’s how to move into your magnificence by channeling – and living – joy.
Please take some time with the exercises, enjoy it and spread it around.