In a jar lingering with the scent of the vanilla beans it once held, I have been storing slips of paper marked with “good things” that have happened during the past year. I love the concept of a “Good Things Jar” and was super excited to start my own.
My problem was being consistent in marking down all the good things that happened. I started out strong with a lot of notes jotted down in the months of January, February, and March. The remaining months of the year had a few scattered notes, but not nearly the same amount.
Even so, as I leafed through the contents of my jar, I was flooded with memories and warm feelings about all the good 2015 held. My jar included the many trips Lance and I have taken, movies and shows we went to see (can you believe the final Hobbit came out only last year?), and even simple things like snow days, surviving my first root canal, and thanks for being saved from no heat by my dad on an 11 degree day in January.
If you often find yourself unable to verbalize any good that happened during the past year, or if you just want the reminder of all the good that happened—start a Good Things Jar! If anything, it becomes a nice capsule sure to bring about thoughts of, “Wow, that was only last year?!” as you sort through its contents on New Year’s Eve.
My recommendations:
- Pick a jar you are going to love looking at all year long and place it in an easy to access spot. Mine is in the kitchen.
- Get special note paper for your jar. Nothing too big, we’re talking post it note size.
*If you’re really fancy, get a different colored paper for each month to make your jar pop. - Try to write something down each week. You can write things as they happen, but a planned summary of each week’s good things might help you to be a little more consistent in filling your jar up.
If you think nothing particularly good happened in a week, “I have a roof over my head”, “I have a job”, or “I had dinner tonight” always count as good things.
Here is to a 2016 filled to the brim with many, many good things!
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