How To Plan & Optimize For Daily Joy!
Watch
Listen
A page from journal number six, 1997: a list of everything that brings me joy. Thirty years on, most of it still does. Make one and you get the joy twice.
Good morning.
I've been going back through thirty years of journals, and there's a page in journal number six that's making me smile.
It was 1997.
The prompt I'd written at the top of it was simple. Let's start with a list of all the things you can think of that bring you joy.
And then just a list.
Number one was a great day of golf with some good friends.
Thirty years later, that one still lands.
You know what a gratitude practice is. Think of this as a joy practice.
Not what you're thankful for... what actually brings you joy. So you can go and put more of it into your days.
Let me read you some of mine.
There was a show I watched every morning when I first moved to Florida. Animated, comedians on a psychiatrist's couch. Very fun.
A day at home with nothing to do but lay around and read and study. Still true.
Going to a movie at Celebration. Still true.
Those are two-hour things, which means they go in the calendar. Like anything else you actually intend to do.
Being in resort-like surroundings is on the list too, and I've built my life around that one.
Where I live, we call it the Four Seasons Valhalla.
Dan Sullivan said something once that stuck with me. That he and Babs don't want to do any less at home than they would if they were staying at the Four Seasons.
So we have a logo. Robes in the guest room. The logo on the coffee cups.
Then there's dreaming up big schemes.
Some people do Sudoku. I like to crack a marketing puzzle. Same puzzle, same recreation, and mine happens to pay.
The ones that surprised me are the very specific ones.
My friend Stacey Hurley used to throw apple crisp and Trivial Pursuit parties. She'd make this legendary apple crisp, invite everybody over to her beautiful home, and we'd play Trivial Pursuit all night.
I read that line and the whole feeling comes back.
Which is the part I didn't expect.
Even the things that don't fit into your life this week still bring you joy, just from the remembering.
Then there are the rituals.
At the time it was Sunday night at the movies with Tim and Darlene. Their place or ours, every Sunday.
I still do it. Now it's Josh and Diane coming to the office to watch a movie.
Having money is on the list. They say money can't buy happiness... it brings me joy, and I'm going to write it down.
And an afternoon by the fire at the Delta Meadowvale in Toronto. A big lobby, a real wood-burning fireplace, hot chocolate and a stack of magazines, and somebody coming round every so often to stoke it with actual logs.
It's a gas fireplace now. Not the same.
But the remembrance of it is still doing its work.
So here's the whole thing.
Take some space in your journal and write down what brings you joy. Then either fit more of it in, or ritualize it so you know it's coming.
And you get paid twice.
Once now, filling your days with the things on the list.
And once in thirty years, when you open the page and find you knew all along.
Here's your nudge for today.
Start a joy page. Just the list... everything you can think of that brings you joy.
Then look at this week and put one of them in it.
Transcript
Auto-generated transcript, provided as supporting material. It may contain errors, and speaker labels are occasionally mis-attributed.
Good morning. One of the things that's really making me smile as I look back through my journals over 30 years — in 1997, journal number six — is one of the things I would use my journal for: to make an inventory, just a list of things that bring me joy. The prompt in my journal was, "let's start with a list of all the things you can think of that bring you joy." Looking at this list, it's amazing to see the reminders of some of the things, and things that still, 30 years later, bring me joy every day.
Number one on my list was a great day of golf with some good friends. I think it's important for you to acknowledge the things that bring you joy so you can fill your days with some of these things. It's similar in tone, I guess, to what a gratitude journal would be — a gratitude practice. I think of this as a joy practice: recognizing the things that actually bring you joy and striving to plug them into your everydays.
Number two on my list: there was a great show I'd watch every morning when I first moved to Florida — a therapist-themed animated show where comedians would be on the psychiatry couch. Very fun to watch. I loved a day at home with nothing to do but lay around and read and study — to this day that still brings me joy. Going to a movie at Celebration — there was a great movie theater there — and to this day, still going to movies brings me joy. These are things you can plug into a two-hour block; I place them in my calendar like we're going to do them.
One of the things I love is being in resort-like surroundings — luxury hotels — and I've created my environments like that. Where I live, we call it the Four Seasons Valhalla. Dan Sullivan had a great saying once, that he and Babs don't want to do any less at home than they would if they were living at the Four Seasons. I've really adopted that — we even have a logo for the Four Seasons Valhalla, robes for the guest room, a little logo on the coffee cups — everything to surround yourself with the environments you really love.
Something that brings me joy is dreaming up big schemes. I love a good marketing scheme — nothing more than solving or cracking the code on a marketing puzzle. Some people like Sudoku; I like to solve marketing problems, it brings that much joy and recreation. It was funny because some of these were very specific — I remember the feelings. My good friend Stacey Hurley used to have apple crisp and Trivial Pursuit parties — she'd make this legendary apple crisp, invite people over, we'd have these Trivial Pursuit nights at her beautiful home. Great time. Every time I think about it, I still get that feeling of joy.
So even if the things aren't fitting into your life this week, you get joy from the remembrance of them and what they mean — it keeps you focused on the things that bring you joy. Then there are the rituals, the things you really love. At this time it was Sunday night at the movies with Tim and Darlene — friends we'd watch a movie with every Sunday night, either at their place or ours. I still do that today — Josh and Diane come to my office and we'll watch movies. So the things that bring me joy are still the fun things.
Having money brings me joy. I don't know — they say money can't buy happiness, but it brings me joy, I like that. An afternoon at the Delta Meadowvale by the fire in Toronto — there was a Delta hotel with a nice lobby and a beautiful wood-burning fireplace. I'd go there in the winter and look through magazines or read, have hot chocolate, sit by the fire, and they'd come and stoke it with real logs. Now it's a gas fireplace, which isn't quite the same vibe — but the remembrance of those things is an amazing joy-bringer, even on reflection.
So the big lesson here is to take some time and space in your journal to acknowledge and recognize the things that bring you joy, so you can fit more of them into your life or ritualize them so you know they're coming up. I love a good Sunday night routine — knowing that Sunday night we're going to have a movie night. And then the second joy you get is 30 years later, looking in your journal and recognizing that you really understood what brought you joy then — and those things still bring you joy now, and you get joy from the remembrance of them too.
So I'm a big fan of this. I think having a joy page in your journal would be a good thing you could do today.
I got a funny email the other day from Rick. It says, "Dean, question. Are you saying you can teach me to make fat stacks by hanging out at a pub drinking coffee like you?" And I laughed to myself, because I was thinking — you know, yes, I can do that. That's what I do. The funny thing I really realized is that every idea I've had, every dollar I've made over the last 30 years, has gone through my brain, through my pen, onto a piece of paper in my journal before it went out into the real world.
And if I can turn people on to that activity as a driver for what to do, what to think about, what to ask yourself to draw out what the next most valuable action is for you, and how to find the most profitable things you can install in your business — I'm all for it. So this Friday at 1 p.m., I'm going to do, for the first time, a 50 Minute Profit Finder workshop. And you're going to join me live on Zoom. We're going to go through a 50-minute exercise. Bring your pen, bring a notebook or piece of paper, and I'm going to guide you through a thinking process that will help you identify where the lowest-hanging fruit is in your business — and maybe some fruit you didn't even know was there, but I'm going to show you where to look for it. So it's free. It's for you. It's Friday at 1 p.m. This Friday. Just go to 50minuteprofitfinder.com and I'll get you all the details. And hopefully you can join us then, Friday at 1 p.m.
Get BreakthroughDNA Free
Discover the 8 Profit Activators that can transform your business. Get the complete framework, free.