I was at the store today when I met my friend with her year old son. The young boy hesitated a bit before coming to me and within a few minutes we were friends. Within a few seconds he was laughing and giggling away to glory. It didn’t take much to make him laugh either.

The other day I was sitting in front of the library thinking about something and there were small kids playing at the water fountains – running and jumping every time the water fountains started.

The bar to be joyful was very low when we were kids. As we grow up, we started raising the bar and we never stopped it.

Look around yourself at work and at home – within seconds you can tell where is the bar for being joyful for every person you know. It’s not hard to know. People rarely deviate from that imaginary bar and every now and then, they raise the bar a little bit.

Some people don’t even notice that their bar is too high for them to enjoy anything, I mean ANYTHING in life. I feel sad for them as after sometime it becomes so part of their life that they start thinking “that is how they are” as if there is a chip in their brain that has set the bar for joy to that height.

The good news is that you have complete control on where the bar for joy should be set. If you could raise the bar for joy, then you could lower it too. Being aware of this imaginary bar for joy will already loosen you up a bit.

An old saying seems apt here:
Smile. It improves your face value!

How about you – where have you placed your bar to being joyful?

What would your world look like if you lower that bar by a few notches right now?