What Have You Been Walking Past?

A Simple Way to Find More Joy

For months, I kept walking past the same painting kit at Michaels.

And every time, I did almost exactly the same thing.

I’d pick it up.

Look at it.

Imagine myself trying it.

Then put it back on the shelf.

There wasn’t anything particularly remarkable about it. It was a small textured painting kit. The kind of thing you could easily walk past without giving it another thought.

Except I kept giving it another thought.

Something about it interested me.

And still, I kept putting it back.

Why do we talk ourselves out of the little things?

I think many of us have become very good at evaluating whether something is worth doing.

Do I need it?

Will I use it?

Do I have time for this?

Will I be any good at it?

Is there something more important I should be doing?

They’re sensible questions.

But there’s another question we don’t always give as much attention to:

What if I simply want to try it?

That little painting kit had been sitting on my Joy Map for months.

My Joy Map isn’t a bucket list filled with big experiences I hope to have someday.

It’s much simpler than that.

It’s a collection of things that I know, or suspect, might bring me joy.

Things I’m curious about.

Things I haven’t done in a while.

Places I’d like to explore.

Small experiences that make something inside me perk up and think, Oh, that might be fun.

And I’ve started paying more attention to those moments.

Because maybe they’re telling us something.

Sometimes curiosity is enough

Eventually, I stopped walking past the painting kit.

I bought it.

And I had no idea whether I would be good at textured painting.

I didn’t even know if I would like doing it.

But that wasn’t really the point.

The point was giving myself permission to follow my curiosity.

You can come along with me as I finally try it in the video here:

Watch: I Kept Walking Past This… Until I Finally Said Yes!

When I opened the box, I discovered everything I needed was already there. There was a brush, a spatula, paints, modelling paste and, much to my relief, the outline was already on the canvas.

I didn’t have to know what I was doing.

I just had to begin.

Twenty minutes later, I had made something.

And I was so happy with it.

Not because I had suddenly discovered some hidden talent for textured painting.

I was happy because I had finally said yes to something I had been quietly wanting to do.

That felt important.

How often do we postpone ourselves?

We tend to think of postponement in terms of the big things.

The trip we haven’t taken.

The change we haven’t made.

The dream we haven’t pursued.

But I wonder about the much smaller ways we postpone ourselves.

The class we keep looking at but never book.

The trail we’ve been meaning to walk.

The restaurant we keep saying we’ll try.

The book we want to read.

The paints sitting untouched in a cupboard.

The music we used to love.

The garden we keep imagining.

The little idea that keeps returning for no particularly sensible reason.

None of these things is going to transform our lives overnight.

Maybe that’s exactly why they’re so easy to dismiss.

But perhaps joy doesn’t always need to be transformative.

Maybe sometimes it can simply be twenty minutes at the kitchen table doing something because we wanted to see what it felt like.

Joy can happen in little pockets of time

I think we sometimes imagine joy as something we’ll find when the circumstances are right.

When we have more time.

When work settles down.

When everyone else needs a little less from us.

When we finally get around to doing something big.

But I’m beginning to see joy differently.

It can be something we practise in small pockets of ordinary life.

And that’s really what my Joy Map has been helping me notice.

It gives me somewhere to capture those little sparks instead of immediately dismissing them.

Not everything on the list will turn out to be something I love.

That’s okay.

I don’t think the goal is to construct a perfectly joyful life.

It’s to become a little more willing to notice what makes us feel interested, curious, playful or alive.

And occasionally say yes.

What keeps getting your attention?

Maybe there’s something you’ve been walking past too.

Not necessarily literally.

Maybe it’s an idea.

A class.

A hobby.

A place you want to visit.

Something you loved years ago and keep thinking about returning to.

Or something completely impractical that simply sounds fun.

What would happen if, instead of dismissing that little pull, you wrote it down?

That’s one of the reasons I created my Joy Map.

It’s not another list of things you should accomplish, and it’s not a bucket list filled with big experiences you might get around to someday.

It’s a place to start noticing you again.

The things that make you curious. The things you miss. The things you’d like to try. The small experiences that might bring a little more enjoyment, interest or aliveness into an ordinary day.

If you’d like to create your own, I’ve made a free Joy Map guide that will gently walk you through it.

Create Your Joy Map → Get it here!