A bright green dot kind of day
A bright green dot kind of day
Wishing you a very happy Valentine’s Day eve!
For the past 1,139 days, I’ve tracked my daily mood on an app on my phone. Every night at 20:00, it asks, “How are you?” and I choose between five emoji faces ranging from a bright green “rad” face to a dark grey “awful” face. More than mood, I use it to track my overall life satisfaction from day to day, out of curiosity.
At the end of 2025, the app gave me a summary: 37 rad days, 321 good days, and 7 meh days, with no bad or awful days. My average rating for the year was 4.1/5, which is pretty good. I’m not trying to be smug or self-congratulatory. The truth is, my life is far from perfect. There are things that bother me, make me sad or worried – things I would change in an instant if I could.
I showed the results to someone, and she asked whether I’m naturally a positive person – whether being in a good mood is my default setting. Perhaps to some extent. But my son will tell you that I can be as grumpy and impatient as anyone.
In the days that followed, I reflected on what allowed me to have such a good year, even when my circumstances weren’t always ideal. I came to two conclusions:
Consistency matters: There are a handful of daily actions that dramatically affect my ability to show up consistently and shape how I experience life. These include a regular sleep routine, a daily spiritual practice, consistency in movement, and well-maintained relationships. When I sleep enough, pray, exercise, and connect with friends and family, life is simply better. These practices lift average days from meh to good.
Know your sparks: The app allows you to upload photos to capture what happened on specific days. Looking back at my “rad” days, I saw photos of fun team-building events we hosted, time spent with close friends and loved ones, adventures, swimming in the dark, participating in triathlons, cycling and running races, and even two days spent driving very fast cars. These are the experiences that stand out. They turn good days into rad ones. But you only get to experience those highs if you know what genuinely lights you up.
I recently started working with a client going through a tough season. Their life story includes more downs than ups. When I asked about sources of joy, there were none: no friends, no hobbies, no enjoyable activities, and a job that feels meaningless. Just bucketloads of meh. It struck me. And I genuinely feel for this person. Yet it’s not uncommon for people we encounter professionally to say they don’t know what they enjoy. Many move through life on autopilot, waiting for something extraordinary to happen and change everything.
By my own subjective measure, 2025 was a very good year. I didn’t win the lottery, take extravagant holidays, buy a new car or house, upgrade my wardrobe, or get a facelift – very little that would make for a flashy social media post. But I did work I enjoy. I wrote a book. I had meaningful conversations. I built puzzles, trained, went for runs and walks, watched sports, laughed with friends and even cried a couple of times.
If you’re waiting for something magical to happen, I hope it does. But in the meantime, build the habit of repeating the small actions that help you show up with more joy and energy. At the same time, think about and be intentional about creating standout moments that will make your 2026 highlight reel – days worthy of a bright green emoji.
It might start with something as simple as getting off the couch (a story for another day).
Thank you very much for reading. Please share this piece with anyone who could benefit from it. Have a wonderful weekend!
If you are having a difficult time trying to establish good habits or structure, get in touch. You can reach us at info@purposeworks.co.za.
At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.
