“So, did you have a good week?” my mom asked.

“Eh, it was OK,” I replied.

“Just ‘OK’? Did something happen?”

“No, nothing happened. I mean, it was just a normal week,” I said.

“Oh. And it was just ‘OK’?”

That was it. Nothing monumental. Just an innocent question my mom asked during a casual phone call. In the time since we’d last spoken, nothing had gone wrong. No one had gotten sick and there’d been no hardships. Everything was good at work. Yet, my opinion of the week was that it’d been ‘OK’. Not good nor bad, just ‘OK’.

When we got off the phone, I thought about what I’d said. Why didn’t I have a good week? If my week was only ‘OK’, what would have made it better? What would have made my week happier?  What would have made my days happier?

I sat down and reviewed the past week. For starters, I’d only worked out twice that week when I typically worked out every day. Work commitments had altered my normal routine and I hadn’t found extra time to exercise. Also, I’d felt isolated all week. It was nothing serious, but I’d had a busy work week and it had reduced my usual degree of office interaction. Throughout the week, I’d also failed to do anything creative. As a hobby, I liked to journal ideas and write jokes. But, because the kids had gotten up early and because I’d had evening work events, I hadn’t written a single thing all week.

As I examined my past week, one thing was clear: I hadn’t done many of the little things that made me happy. None of them were big issues. It wasn’t like I’d missed out on any major events. It was just that my week had lacked the minor perks that usually added a little sunshine to my days.

The conclusion sounded too simple. If I wanted to have a good week, I needed to have good days. If I wanted to have good days, I needed to do the little things that made me happy. In order to do those little things, I needed to proactively plan them into my day instead of leaving them up to the mercy of circumstance. I needed to fit workouts around my work calendar. I needed to deliberately initiate conversation with coworkers. I needed to schedule time to write.

Happiness isn’t a destination, it’s a state of mind. No one achieves happiness and then remains blissful from that day forward. Rather, being happy takes work. It’s a lot like getting in shape. In order to be fit, you need to eat right and exercise. Then, once you’re in shape, you must keep working each day to maintain your level of fitness. Happiness is no different. Being happy means doing things that make you happy and unfortunately, those things don’t always happen organically.

I want my typical week to be good or even great. I want to be happy. We all do. Think hard about the little things that make you happy and plan ways to do them more often. Happier days will make for a happier life. We all want that.  We all want more than OK.