Today is International Day of Happiness and I've been sitting with that word- happiness - all morning. Asking myself what it actually means to me, right now, in this season of life.
The honest answer? Happiness, for me, is not a destination. It's not something I arrive at, but rather something I meet and carry throughout the day, throughout life. It hides in small pockets, ones you sometimes have to look deep into to find. And let's just say I like looking for small things that matter.
Leaving an impact
Last week, one of our users reached out to me via Instagram and told me that she and her sisters color the same drawing in Lake and then send it to their grandmother to pick the winner. She said it's their bonding time and grandma loves being the judge. I always saw coloring in Lake as time to oneself, but this actually warmed my heart - the way people can be creative and use coloring as an activity to bring generations together.
Colored by the three sisters.
When you're busy doing the work, these kinds of messages pull you back and show you that what we are building matters. It's not just something to pass the time - it is something that brings joy and happiness to so many.
That makes me happy. Profoundly, quietly, genuinely happy. Not the kind that comes from hitting a metric, but the kind that settles in your chest and stays there.
Keeping track of your happiness
I was always a journal girlie. Ever since I can remember, I would journal - usually into a notebook with a nice cover that I would save up money for, and then later in my teens I would start pasting little things in it: cinema tickets, my favourite candy wrappers, or just a cut-out of my favourite crush. (I'll leave you guessing, but I'll give you a hint: it was one of the Backstreet Boys.) Now it's called junk journaling, but back then it was always my little space for thoughts and a creative outlet.
As an adult who now works at a coloring app, I find myself using the color journal as both a creative outlet and a gratitude journal. I get to - without any judgment - be honest with my emotions, pick how I feel, and with my own mood palette, choose from two drawings that are suggested to me to color. Even if it sometimes starts off in a weird mood, I just let it flow, because this is my space and I get to do whatever I want with it. I write a few lines at the end - and here's why I'm talking about the journal in terms of happiness: because even when I start coloring feeling off, I end up feeling better. And the notes I leave next to the drawing are actually quite joyful. I start asking myself: what made me smile today? What was the small thing that felt good? It sounds simple because it is. But over time, those small notes build into something that looks a lot like a reminder - reminder that good things are happening all the time, even on the hard days, even when the world feels like a lot.
It's a joyous little corner of the app, and it's no wonder it's loved by so many of our users.
The happiest people in the world
I've been reading about the Finns lately. Consistently the happiest people on earth, according to the World Happiness Report - and when you look at why, some of it is structural: social trust, healthcare, a government that generally functions. Fair enough. Not all of us have that. (I say this with love for Slovenia, which is beautiful and trying its best.)
But the parts that aren't structural? Those are choices. The Finns prioritize time off without guilt. They walk in nature not as exercise but as necessity. They protect their personal lives as fiercely as their professional ones. They are present for the people around them.
That is something all of us can do, and I am trying to do it as much as possible.
My happiness is not complicated when I look at it honestly. It's Larry - my dog, who greets every single day like it's the best one yet and has never once been wrong about it. It's my husband and my daughter, who are the people I most want to tell things to. It's my friends, who have been around long enough to know the difference between when I'm fine and when I'm actually fine.
And it's the people I come to work with every day. We share more than a desk and a coffee machine - we share a genuine belief that what we're building is worth building. That coloring, of all things, can be the thing that gives someone their quiet back. That a hand-drawn illustration by an independent artist can land in the hands of someone who needed exactly that page on exactly that day. Being surrounded by people who believe in that, who care, who show up for it - that's not a small thing. That's actually everything.
Happy International Day of Happiness. Now go find your small thing. If you'd like to give coloring a go and claim your little spot of happiness - download Lake here.
