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?

by Brittney Lee

Recently, I’ve been reading the book Fight Back with Joy by Margaret Feinberg.  In it, she describes the small joyful things in life as joy bombs. Picture these bombs dropping into your life and exploding into happiness.  Those bombs are things like a beautiful sunset. The laughter of a friend. Even things like sale on those boots you’ve been eyeing. Any little thing that brings you happiness.  I love paying extra attention to these happies and bringing them significance.

One way we do that in our family is to celebrate the happies. Make them bigger deals. Get recognition at work? Celebrate. Make a milestone? Celebrate. Have a half-birthday? Celebrate. Book a fun vacation? Celebrate.

In our first year of marriage, we celebrated the happies by having mini-celebrations each month on our anniversary date. So that meant that each month on the 13^th, I brought home a little treat to share. The girls at Rick’s Bakery in Fayetteville got to know me well.  I would grab a set of petit fours or a frosted cookie or a couple of donuts. Anything to mark the occasion and celebrate.

Another fun tradition we have is the “You’re Special” plate. I don’t remember where I picked it up, but it brings us much joy. If you come home with a promotion, you get to eat dinner on the “You’re Special” plate. If it’s your half-birthday, out comes the plate.  Sometimes special meals are served on the plate. For example, my husband LOVES Buffalo Wild Wings. So one night I picked it up for us for dinner (just because) and served it on the “You’re Special” plate to show him a little extra love.

I think the small things in life deserve celebration. If we save all the honor for big days, the small insignificant happy things get swept under the rug. Instead, I think about how I want to live my life LOUD – and make a fuss about the small things.

I’ve been known to show up to a girls’ night with party hats just because. If someone asks what we’re all celebrating, I respond “Friendship!” And isn’t a beautiful friendship something to celebrate? Or bring noise makers to a child’s basketball game. Make a small thing into a big thing. In high school and college we would buy helium balloons and tie them to friends’ car antennas. They were bursts of joy in ordinary days.

Find a way to celebrate the small things today. You’ll never regret a party – even if it’s an entirely made up occasion.

Brittney is a native Arkansan with a love for bright lights and big city. She often escapes her 20-acre home south of Fort Smith to shop, eat, and catch a concert in the big city. She blogs about her life, her faith, her adventures, her dogs, and her country home at Razorback Britt.