100 Happy Days Challenge (23rd March 2014)

Can you be happy for 100 days in a row? This is the question that 27-year-old Dmitry Golubnichy has posed to humankind in his project 100 Happy Days and since its launch in December 2013, over 350,000 people from all over the world have embarked on their personal journey taking on the 100 Happy Days Challenge by submitting a picture of what made them happy every day for 100 consecutive days. Being happy isn't easy - these days, we live such busy lifestyles and are in a constant chase for ever-rising demands that we often forget to stop and smell the roses and appreciate the little things in life. As mentioned on the 100 Happy Days website, 71% of the people who took on the challenge failed to complete it quoting lack of time as the key reason. In other words, these people were too busy to be happy. The other 29% who made the time and successfully completed the challenge on the other hand claimed to be in a better mood every day and started to notice what makes them happy. Some claimed to feel more optimistic and live in the moment, even finding love during the challenge.

I decided to join the wave of happiness seekers and signed myself up. My motivation: I want to be happier. I'm a generally happy person though a series of events in the past year at work and injuring myself snowboarding had knocked me off my pedestal - some days were clouded with negativity, cynicism and tears; I wasn't as happy as I could be. Taking matters into my own hands, I made being happier my resolution for 2014 and this challenge fitted in perfectly. Not only would it serve as a reminder of the things that make me happy and appreciative of life but also create a habit of recognising those things. Taking on a new challenge is something that makes me happy so this is my picture for Day 1:

Day 1 of #100happydays: Accepting the challenge of submitting 100 happy moments for 100 consecutive days by completing the form and clicking GO!

There are 3 ways for submitting your pictures:

1) Share your picture via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with a public hashtag #100happydays

2) Use your own hashtag to share your pictures (to limit publicity)

3) Send your pictures to myhappyday@100happydays.com (to avoid any publicity)

I opted for choice #3 purely because this was my personal challenge, not a competition or a means of showing off how happy or happier I am. I will however be blogging about my journey every now and then during these 100 days so stay tuned to find out how I'm doing ;)

To add a little extra motivation, 100 Happy Days is giving away a little 100 page book with your 100 happy days at the end of your challenge as a keepsake to always remind you about the wonderful things in your life. Are YOU ready to take on the challenge?