Back in March this year, on my personal/private Insta, I decided when things were a little rough for me that I would start a personal challenge of ‘100 Happy Days’.
This was something that was a trend many years back, where you’d post 100 days in a row a picture of something that made you happy each day. Why did I decide to bring that back? Truthfully, 2026 didn’t have the best start for me. I was in an extremely low rut and pretty much everything in my life was going wrong and overwhelming me. I figured that maybe if I tried hard to look for a positive in each day, this would help change my mindset.
You’ll be pleased to know, I did complete 100 Happy Days in a row (a few images will be splattered across this post from what I shared) on 27th June. But there was a few interesting things I learned about other people and myself throughout this process…
I initially was not seeking happiness in the right way… what I mean by this, is I spent quite a lot of time in the first few weeks, thinking about what I would post as a happy point in advance. Completely missing the point of what I was trying to achieve. The idea was, I would find a positive thing throughout the day that made me happy. But instead I spent a lot of time going into panic mode about what would I post today? Would it be considered ridiculous or boring? Which brings me to the next learning curve.
I wasn’t entirely doing it for myself. One thing I really need to try and activate more when using social media, is doing it for myself. I was still struggling a lot with other peoples perceptions and views of me and what I was posting. Rather than just taking the day as my own and being happy and content myself in what I was posting.
Other people didn’t like what I was doing – but that shouldn’t bother me. I had a lot of banter and abuse from people over the time that I was doing this process. Although I don’t think it was ill intended, it can be quite hurtful when people make jokes about you doing a 100 happy days, particularly when it is something that you’re doing for your own mental health and wellbeing. It bothered me more than it should have, and I then kept trying to be more productive and post less boring things as a result. Again, not doing it for myself.
The final point I came to learn from this challenge, is this:
It’s not about every single day being happy throughout. There are always going to be struggles and obstacles that we face each day. There were some days I ended posting some cute positive happy days post where I’d actually spent 3 hours of that day crying my eyes out over something. But the important part of this process that I started using (after around day 6/7 when I realised not every day would be this perfect happy Disney-themed kind of say) was remembering that I can be raw and honest about my progress, and not every day was going to be amazing.
The point was I was finding at least one small thing out of every day, that made me happy.
It’s not about making all day everyday the happiest best day (although, that would be nice). It’s about acknowledging that your days might not be perfect. But you’re still finding the positives from each day, even the harder ones.
My 100 happy days might be over, yet one thing I am aiming to do going forward is, try and use the same mentality in everyday and look for the good parts, and hopefully making this a regular routine will change my outlook on life for the better.
Despite the tough moments (and probably some cringey pics and captions) I am very glad I did and completed 100 Happy Days. It’s definitely made me feel better mentally, and that’s all that matters.
Positive, Yet Cynical 