THE RULES: Start on January 1st with an empty jar. Throughout the year write the good things that happened to you on little pieces of paper. On December 31st, open the jar and read all the amazing things that happened to you that year.

I started doing this at the beginning of the month after being bedridden for the start of 2013. It was a new year and I was already hating it. I was ill and miserable. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. It was a horrid first few days of the new year and I wasn’t happy about life. However, as I started convalescing and felt mildly better, I came across this post. After what I had just gone through, I thought the ship with my chances of starting this project had sailed and was long gone. Yet, I was so intrigued by the project that I took a brief second and thought to myself, “What’s a good thing that happened to me today? This is my first day out of bed and feeling better… that’s good, right? I could use that!” So I wrote it down and shoved the piece of paper in the giant ass Coca-Cola tin can money box. Took me less than a minute. Then I started compensating for the days I had missed. I started with the previous day when I had gotten my taste back, then the day before that when I started watching the Fringe series, and then the day before that (Jan 1st) when I could finally say that there would be a new season of Arrested Development this year - something I hadn’t been able to say since 2006. I was blown away by the outcome. I had come to the realization that the start of 2013 wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be. No matter how shitty I felt during those days, there was always something good that had happened. It wasn’t ALL bad. It showed me that there is a little bit of light in every dark day. Seeing that there was a reason to smile and to be happy each day, even if it was just for a second, was joyous news.

Therefore I will continue to do this for the rest of the year and hopefully my bad days will be less bad and my good days even better.

I encourage you to try this out because it’s refreshing to be conscious of the fact that everyday is truly worth living.