By Jamie Smith

Life is filled with big moments. Major birthday milestones, graduations, new jobs, major goals met.

I think it’s easy, in fact too easy, to get caught up in those big moments and let a lot of great little moments pass without notice.

I’ve often been told and even encouraged others to celebrate the little things in life. Life events in the last year have driven this home for me.  Anyone who keeps up with me on Facebook knows I started battling health issues last spring, and while I’m doing better, I still struggle.

I had to put most of my goals on hold and focus on specialist visits and healing. I didn’t give up on my plans; I knew if I wanted to do them right so I delayed the full execution. Instead, I focused on doing what I could to reach the long-term goal and celebrated those accomplishments along the way.

For example, one of my goals was to create a new component to my business, Jamie’s Notebook. Full execution meant writing the curriculum, scheduling events and training for the events. I knew I needed to hold off on the curriculum, which made scheduling the events a moot point. I continued with public speaking training, however, which makes me feel confident in my ability to add the new business element soon.

I celebrate the mini goals I established towards the big goal. I’ve continued with public speaking training and exceeded my goal for leading volunteer seminars that help establish my “street cred” for the new business component.

I continued participating in Toastmasters, which has helped me grow my public speaking skills.

Another part of learning to celebrate the “little things” is something I call simple joys. Simple joys are the minor happenings in life that make us smile. For me, it’s realizing I had exact change available to pay for something in cash. Or beautiful sunsets.

I often try to take pictures of these moments and share them. I try to remember to hashtag them with #simplejoys but often forget.

Here are just a few examples from the last year:

My dog Flower (the shepherd mix with the ball) usually focuses on supervising the rest of the family. She enjoys playing keep away, however, and I have to admit I grin when she manages to steal the ball from our black mouth cur mix, Jazzy. It’s great to see her take the opportunity to be silly like a dog should be.I love aquariums, whether it’s in a doctor’s office or a restaurant. Ironically, I would never want to maintain an aquarium. I just find them breathtakingly beautiful when I see one in public.

These were both on the desk where I was about to have blood drawn. That’s never a fun activity, so it was a delight to turn the corner and see pumpkins decorated in such a fun way.

These simple joys may seem trivial, but they are a sanity saver. They help bring a small bit of happiness in what might be an otherwise dreary day. They remind me to be grateful for the good things in life and to acknowledge those things.

What do you consider a simple joy? What small goals on the path to a larger goal will you celebrate this year?