{"id":514,"date":"2016-12-15T20:47:55","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T20:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?p=514"},"modified":"2016-12-15T20:47:55","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T20:47:55","slug":"filling-happiness-jar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html","title":{"rendered":"Filling Your Happiness Jar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pexels-photo-106605<\/a><\/p>\n

The way we spend our time can be divided into three categories, or jars:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Necessary Tasks Jar.<\/li>\n
  2. The Voluntary Tasks Jar.<\/li>\n
  3. And the Happiness Jar.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Every day, we spend some time filling the Necessary Tasks jar. We fill this jar with useful tasks, like earning money, housework, buying groceries, and paying bills.\u00a0 We then fill another jar with Voluntary Tasks.\u00a0 These are things that we do for others that we may not enjoy, but we do them anyway.\u00a0 This jar gets filled with tasks like chauffeuring children to activities, cooking involved family meals, and doing family members\u2019 laundry.\u00a0 Those jars are very important.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t fill them each day, our households won\u2019t run properly.<\/p>\n

    However, we often forget to fill the third jar \u2013 The Happiness Jar. This is the jar that we fill with activities that make us happy.\u00a0 Is your Happiness Jar sometimes empty at the end of the day?\u00a0 We all have days like that.\u00a0 Between doing all the Necessary and Voluntary Tasks, time flies by on some days, and before we know it, it is time for bed.<\/p>\n

    That is why each day we have to make a conscious effort to fill our Happiness Jar. Most days, I fill mine by going to ballroom dance class with my husband and daughter.\u00a0\u00a0 Between the music, the dancing and the camaraderie among the students, I always leave the ballroom studio happier than when I entered.<\/p>\n

    Music is another way that I fill my Happiness Jar. This week, I had the pleasure of participating in an orchestra practice at my church.\u00a0 Our church isn\u2019t large, but we are blessed with a lot of musical talent.\u00a0 So, about 15 of us, including both string and wind instrument players, met to practice Christmas music for an upcoming church service.\u00a0 It was a time of fun, fellowship and music-making.\u00a0 At the end of the evening, my Happiness Jar was filled to overflowing.<\/p>\n

    The challenge for each of us is to not let the day go by without filling our Happiness Jar. That takes some planning.\u00a0 Obligations so easily can take over our lives.\u00a0 So, we have to be strategic about how we spend our time.\u00a0 Ironically, many of us probably need to pencil happiness activities into our schedule.\u00a0 Otherwise, people will fill our schedule with those Necessary and Voluntary Tasks.<\/p>\n

    Another approach is to transform our Necessary Tasks into Happiness activities. One way to do that is to do work that you love.\u00a0 That isn\u2019t easy.\u00a0 It is hard to find work that we are both good at and<\/em> that we find enjoyable.\u00a0 But if you are able to do so, you\u2019ll spend 8 hours of each day filling your Happiness Jar.<\/p>\n

    This week, consider how your time is being spent. Are you doing enough activities that bring joy to your life?\u00a0 Or are the Necessary and Voluntary Tasks consuming all your time?\u00a0 Try to find ways to achieve balance between how you are filling your three jars.\u00a0 God blesses us with each day.\u00a0 At the end of the day, hopefully we\u2019ve done all we can to make sure that our Happiness Jar is filled.<\/p>\n

    (Photo courtesy of Pexels)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The way we spend our time can be divided into three categories, or jars: The Necessary Tasks Jar. The Voluntary Tasks Jar. And the Happiness Jar. Every day, we spend some time filling the Necessary Tasks jar. We fill this jar with useful tasks, like earning money, housework, buying groceries, and paying bills.\u00a0 We then…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-happiness"],"yoast_head":"\nFilling Your Happiness Jar - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Filling Your Happiness Jar - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The way we spend our time can be divided into three categories, or jars: The Necessary Tasks Jar. The Voluntary Tasks Jar. And the Happiness Jar. Every day, we spend some time filling the Necessary Tasks jar. We fill this jar with useful tasks, like earning money, housework, buying groceries, and paying bills.\u00a0 We then…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-15T20:47:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/files\/2016\/12\/pexels-photo-106605-jars-A.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Meerabelle Dey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Filling Your Happiness Jar - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Filling Your Happiness Jar - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","og_description":"The way we spend our time can be divided into three categories, or jars: The Necessary Tasks Jar. The Voluntary Tasks Jar. And the Happiness Jar. Every day, we spend some time filling the Necessary Tasks jar. We fill this jar with useful tasks, like earning money, housework, buying groceries, and paying bills.\u00a0 We then…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html","og_site_name":"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","article_published_time":"2016-12-15T20:47:55+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/files\/2016\/12\/pexels-photo-106605-jars-A.jpg"}],"author":"Meerabelle Dey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html","name":"Filling Your Happiness Jar - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/files\/2016\/12\/pexels-photo-106605-jars-A.jpg","datePublished":"2016-12-15T20:47:55+00:00","dateModified":"2016-12-15T20:47:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#\/schema\/person\/7250ab2fc75dd2e7e923fbec0fbb375c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/files\/2016\/12\/pexels-photo-106605-jars-A.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/files\/2016\/12\/pexels-photo-106605-jars-A.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/filling-happiness-jar.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Filling Your Happiness Jar"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/","name":"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Meerabelle Dey","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#\/schema\/person\/7250ab2fc75dd2e7e923fbec0fbb375c","name":"Meerabelle Dey","description":"Meerabelle Dey has a B.A. in History and Religious Studies from the University of Toronto and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. Much of her legal career has been spent dealing with issues affecting women, children and the poor. She has lived in the United States, Canada and the Middle East. Meerabelle now devotes her time to writing. Her mission is to use her writing to inspire others to achieve God\u2019s unique purpose for their life.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/author\/mdey"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/593"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":517,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions\/517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}