“My credo is etched on my mirror in my bathroom and I see it when I brush my teeth in the morning. It says, ‘Don’t Worry. Be Happy. Feel Good.’ When you see that first thing, and you reflect on it, the rest of the day seems to glide by pretty well.”
Larry Hagman, Actor

“Don’t Worry. Be Happy. Feel Good” — I love the idea of having this little mantra greet me when I get up in the morning! I’m going to jot it down on some index cards and put one on my mirror and scatter a few around my office. Maybe I’ll even put one in my wallet, so I can pull it out and see it.

It reminds me of an adorable flowered water bottle I have. Right in the middle of the flowers, it says, “Do More of What Makes You Happy.” I like to fill it up and keep it in my office so I can glance at it.

Some days, I know, it’s challenging to put worry aside and reach for happiness. It can be hard to bring our full attention and intention to the page because circumstances are hovering all around that page, flapping their dark, distracting wings and doing their best to pull us away. When this happens, we can look up and let them overwhelm us, or we can make another choice: We can turn to the page as a refuge, a place where we can find happiness and fulfillment.

And when we do this, sometimes a miracle happens. Here’s why: When asked what he’d learned from a lifetime of writing, John Kenneth Galbraith said, “The quality of writing I do on the days I don’t feel like it is just as good as the quality on the days I do feel like it.”

What a powerful insight! Ponder it for a moment: Even if we feel worried or upset or too tired to write, if we push past those feelings and write, we can get to a place where the quality of our writing is actually quite high and begin to feel a sense of accomplishment and joy. We can actually write our way into a better day.

“Don’t Worry. Be Happy. Feel Good” — when we do more of what makes us happy, anything is possible. So let’s all write on!