What Brought You Joy Today?
Gratitude is often about what we have. Joy is about what we notice.
I’m grateful for my health, my home, my family and friends, and a new client.
But joy?
Joy might be the bird that catches my attention on a walk, the first sip of coffee, a butterfly that lands long enough for me to notice it, a ridiculous laugh with a friend, or the sky turning pink when I wasn’t even looking for a sunset.
Gratitude asks me to appreciate my life. Joy asks me to be awake for it.
Why is this important?
I’ve been keeping, or trying to keep, a gratitude journal for several years. I pause daily to write about what I’m grateful for. This keeps me grounded and reminds me that I have so much to be thankful for, especially when I’m having a bad day, when my business isn’t progressing the way I’d hoped, or when an email I expect to receive doesn’t arrive.
When I thought I hadn’t accomplished much in 2025, I went back through my journal and realized I had done far more than I originally remembered. I had been proud of those moments when they happened, but somewhere along the way I had forgotten some of them. Reading about them again renewed that sense of accomplishment and reminded me that the hard work was paying off.
Lately, though, I’ve been thinking about something slightly different. I heard someone suggest keeping track of joy, and my first thought was that I already do that. I have a gratitude journal.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized they aren’t quite the same.
Joy happens when I notice the little things in life that make me smile. Sometimes it happens spontaneously. Sometimes I seek it out. And sometimes I catch it from someone else.
Spontaneous joy
Every one of our five senses can bring us joy throughout the day. The smell of lilacs on a walk brings me back to my childhood and the giant lilac bush we had in our front yard. Walking into the house when dinner is on the stove or dessert is in the oven can bring joy to an empty stomach.
We planted milkweed in our backyard to attract monarch butterflies. My husband and I check the plant regularly for chrysalises. When two appeared, we watched in awe as the butterflies emerged and slowly spread their wings. I took hundreds of pictures and cherish those images, knowing that in a small way, we helped create a place for that life to begin.
One of my favorite sounds in the world is a purring cat. I lose sleep when my cat decides it’s time to cuddle, and those cuddles always come with loud purring. She may be mean at other times of the day, but all is forgiven when she starts to purr.
Those moments don’t solve anything. They don’t answer the email, land the client or remove whatever frustration I may be carrying. But they interrupt it. I smile, laugh or stop thinking about the problem for a moment, and sometimes that small shift is enough to change the direction of my day.
Seeking out joy
When I go for a walk, I often find myself looking for hearts. The heart can be in the shape of a leaf, a rock or even an oil stain. I may have to squint to see it, but when I discover one, I instantly smile.
I was hiking with friends a few weeks ago, and one friend found a small rock with a heart that almost looked as though someone had painted it there. It looked like an archaeological discovery. When I mentioned that I had been looking for hearts for the past hour, she gave it to me.
That little rock now sits in my office, and every time I see it, I remember that hike and smile.
Maybe that’s the difference I’m beginning to notice. We don’t have to wait for joy to find us. We can actually get better at looking for it.
Contagious joy
Have you ever heard someone laughing and started laughing too, even though you had no idea what was funny? Joy can be wonderfully contagious.
Sometimes it seems even more powerful when it comes from someone facing challenges most of us have never experienced. Two young people have made me think about joy in that way recently.
Peyton Marquez has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. He was diagnosed at age six and slowly began losing the ability to use many of the muscles in his body. Today, he is 20 and uses a wheelchair and requires assistance with daily living tasks. His diagnosis inspired Peyton’s Project, a nonprofit that funds research and provides equipment for others with the disease and the podcast episode with his mom Bonnie Marquez.
Peyton is also the keynote speaker at the annual Barrels of Strength Gala in Nashville, Tennessee. I had the privilege of emceeing the event again this year, and once again, Peyton brought the house down. His physical challenges are real, but so is his joy. One doesn’t erase the other.
Another recent podcast guest, Tammie Osborne, talked with me about her daughter Jordan, better known as Ladybug. Tammie and her husband tried unsuccessfully for years to start a family. When Jordan was finally born, they learned she had Down syndrome as well as a serious heart defect that required open-heart surgery.
Today, Tammie talks about how much joy Ladybug brings to their entire family. It can come from her iPad, the next meal, traveling, or simply being with the people she loves. Tammie described it as a “simple kind of joy” and said it can make you forget, at least for a moment, some of the challenges of entrepreneurship, adulting and life.
Maybe we’re the ones who assume joy requires our circumstances to cooperate.
Peyton’s circumstances don’t eliminate his joy, and Ladybug’s circumstances don’t eliminate hers. They remind me that difficulty and joy can occupy the same life, the same day and perhaps even the same moment.
Keep track of joy
I have a challenge for you, and I’m going to try it too.
Don’t abandon the gratitude journal. If you already have one, keep using it. If you don’t, consider starting one. There is tremendous value in intentionally remembering what we have to be grateful for.
But add something new. For the next two weeks, keep track of joy.
Don’t make it another assignment you have to complete perfectly. Just notice one thing each day that makes you smile. Maybe it’s your dog greeting you with wags and licks after a long day, a rainbow appearing after a rainstorm, a heart hiding in a cloud, a great song coming on the radio, or someone laughing so hard that you can’t help but join them.
Write it down. Then, after two weeks, go back and look at what you noticed.
Did you start looking for joy more often? Did you find it in places you previously would have walked right past? Did a hard day feel slightly less hard?
The challenges and problems will still be there. Keeping track of joy isn’t about pretending otherwise. Maybe it’s simply about remembering that the difficult things aren’t the only things that are there.
I know what I’m grateful for. Now I want to get better at noticing what brings me joy.
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