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What’s a Great Day? by Terry DeWitt
One of the most common greetings you hear from people, from your best friend to the checkout lady at the grocery store, is “Have a great day!” It’s a wonderful upbeat thing to say and it feels good to hear it from others. I think most of us wake up each morning hoping that we will have a great day.
So I began to think about what it means to “have a great day” and what we can do to increase our chances of having lots of them. While each person probably has her own idea of what a great day is for her, there is a lot that we can agree on.
You gotta start with your health. It’s the foundation that provides the energy to do everything else in life. It’s important and too many of us neglect it. Sure, we address problems when they come up; fixing various inflictions after the fact. But few of us take a proactive approach to our health.
For me, being healthy starts with what you eat and what kind of exercise you get. These are the two most powerful and controllable factors influencing our health. The current obesity epidemic is vivid illustration that too few of us focus on what we consume and what we do with the energy it provides. Finding a balanced and sustainable approach to this basic question can have a profound effect on the energy we have for life and the number of days we get to live.
Once we’re healthy, the next thing most of us want is to be happy. Not the fleeting kind of happiness that lasts for a moment or a day, but the deep, meaningful happiness that brings lasting fulfillment. Have you ever seen someone who is genuinely, truly, consistently happy? Year after year? You start to wonder how they got that way. Such confidence, such inner peace, such energy for life. They feel comfortable in their own skin in a way that’s impressive, because it is so rare. How do they do it?
The short answer is that many of them work at it. There are approaches to the basic building blocks of life (work life, relationships, spirituality, etc) that can have dramatic impacts on your happiness and the impact you have on those around you. Finding the right balance in these key areas can give you many happy and productive years.
And finally, having a great day is much easier when the world around you is healthy and happy. The environment you live in can have a tremendous impact on you. And if you are healthy and happy, you can have a tremendous impact on your environment. So we need to start with ourselves, but then we need to dedicate ourselves to callings greater than us alone. This positive feedback loop is the engine that can drive real change for the world and real growth for all of us.
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About the Author
Terry DeWitt is founder of Great Day Outfitters. A lifestyle marketer, athlete, and idea explorer, Terry developed this new site for healthy living.
Prior to Great Day Outfitters, Terry worked as a lifestyle marketer for almost 20 years and has held executive positions at top consumer companies including Weight Watchers, LL Bean, Harvard Business Publishing, and Fidelity Investments. As a marketing consultant, Terry