You Are Responsible for Your Joy

Necessary reminder, your personal joy is your responsibility. That’s it, that’s the post!

No one has the power to control or take away your joy unless you willingly place it in their hands. Commonly, many people make a daily choice to predicate their joy on external sources. Placing that kind of power in the hands of something or someone outside of yourself is a dangerous state of vulnerability. Bringing this to your attention to help shift your mind to be steadfast in the knowing that joy is a personal responsibility. Joy is also your birthright. Operating from a place of, “I will have joy when (fill in the blank with an external source)”, is essentially looking forward to temporary joy that will subside once the high is extinct after receiving whatever it may be.

Joy will always live inside of you. Joy thrives when you choose to allow it to. Things outside of you can add to your joy or spark it - this is simply a reminder to not let them solely dictate your joy. Taking responsibility for your personal joy looks like actively finding joy in the midst of a challenge, making time to check-in with yourself to brainstorm how you can build up your internal joy, or extending your joy unto others by celebrating them. Choosing an active role in every aspect of your life requires work. Hence, why most people choose to lead a passive life that leads to fleeting and passive joy. We have many responsibilities and most of them are mundane, so why not fully lean into the responsibility to cultivate the kind of personal joy that perseveres through the ebb/flow of life.

Joy Gem: “Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy.” - Milton Erickson