The Good Things Jar is one of the easiest ways to keep your gratitude grounded and spread joy from you to future you! Here’s what it’s all about:
Global (09 January 2024) — Whether your focus has been on resolutions, intentions, desperate attempts to stay away from old habits or simply going with the flow unapologetically, here is something that doesn’t require any restrictions nor pushing yourself to any limits, but will help you spread something really important throughout your year—joy. This is the Good Things Jar!
While we are not the original creative minds behind this treat of an idea, we couldn’t help but share it. After all, what is a good year if not a culmination of many good moments?
The problem with good moments is that we tend to forget them among the noise of hard and challenging moments. And if we don’t forget them, we tend to lessen their worth.
The Good Things Jar then, swoops in as a visual, tangible antidote to all the times we’ve left the hard times supersede the good. Here’s how it works:
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Choose Your Jar
There really are no rules to what kind of jar you need. As long as it has a lid and can contain post-it notes or paper bits and bobs, you’re good.
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Write Down the Good Things Like It’s Your Job
While it might be our job to share all the good things with you, we unfortunately can’t write down all the good things that happen in your life specifically. So, you’re going to take a leaf from our book!
You’re going to be so diligent with this, you’ll practically have a degree in gratitude by the end of 2024. Simply put, every week you need to write down the good things that happened that week in your life. These can go on separate notes/post-its, or you can jot the entire week’s worth onto one piece of paper. You can be as neat or messy as you want. You can write long essays or text-ready sentences. They can be big things or small things. Whatever floats your boat (or in this case, jar).
Look for whatever brings you honest joy, and not what you think you should be joyful about. Ie: if seeing your dog ecstatic on a walk brought you more joy than something else you thought would make you happy, that’s your winner.
But the important thing is to be consistent. Set reminders on your phone every Sunday. Sometimes, you’ll have a lot to write about. Sometimes, you’ll have to dig deep. No matter what, write down just one thing at minimum, even if the week was worlds apart from what you wanted it to be.
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Check In on Your Jar’s Growth
Every new month, check in on the good things notes from the month before, like a treat to starting your month. While the consistency and writing part of the jar makes an attitude of gratitude a habit in your life, reading them helps put anything you’re going through into a more balanced perspective.
But, the biggest treat will come at the end of December. Then, you will sit back, light a candle and pour all the wine to relish in all the good things that made up your 2024—like a bunch of love letters to yourself.
Some will be things you forgot made you smile as much as they did. Others will be etched in your heart forever. But reading them all at once will remind you of one unequivocal point: good things happen to us, and all around us, all the time.
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