THE STUBBORN OPTIMIST'S GUIDE TO GLOBAL JOY

what the happiest places in the world can teach us about everyday living

Every year, someone releases a list of the happiest countries in the world.

And every year, the same places show up.

Just last week, it happened again. The World Happiness Report was published by the University of Oxford and, though it did not receive the same fanfare as the Olympics it did offer some pretty clear global winners:

Finland.
Denmark.
Iceland.

Places where the sun disappears for months and still somehow people are doing okay. Three countries just absolutely dominating it in the sport of quietly having their lives together.

Just … living.

But this year’s report included something a lot harder to shrug away:
Young people are becoming less and less happy.

Significantly less happy.

Young people in North America and Western Europe are much less happy than they were fifteen years ago.

You don’t have to be a researcher or read the full report to know young people are dealing with a lot.

ChildStats.gov compiles and shares information on US children and families in an effort to find gaps, create solutions and improve well-being.

You can feel it in conversations and in classrooms and in quiet moments and all around. We keep asking“What’s going on with kids these days?” and they keep answering, in a thousand quiet ways: “This doesn’t feel great.”

They’re not wrong.

Yes, we’ve built a world that is, in many ways, incredible.

You can order a toothbrush from your phone while holding a toothbrush. What a time to be alive!

We’ve also built a world where you are always a little bit on stage,
where your worth is gently, constantly being scored,
where your attention is being politely taken from you countless times a day,
and where you can, at at any moment, compare your actual life to someone else’s highlight reel while standing in line for pretzels.

That’s a lot to carry.

For anyone.

Especially if you’re still figuring out who you are.

Thank you to Empire Public School Kindness Club in Ontario for being part of the World Joy Project and sending me your artwork!

Wendell Berry once wrote: “Be joyful, though you’ve considered all the facts.”

I’m aware of the stats. I keep up with the news. I know there are SO many challenges in this world for kids and former kids ….

Even so, I remain a stubborn optimist.

(You can read the still-a-work-in-progress Stubborn Optimist Manifesto here.)

To be clear, spending time with the World Happiness Report isn’t all one big downer of a read. It does quietly point toward a few things that can help (and that I think are worth sharing).

If you look at what actually predicts happiness around the world, it’s things like:

• having people you can rely on

• trusting the people around you

• feeling safe where you live

• sharing meals

• helping others

• feeling like you’re part of something

Nothing dramatic. The recommendations point towards very simple, non-flashy things that are making life better in various parts of the world. Just ordinary things that make life easier to carry.

Thank you, Kristin in Minnesota for sharing this artwork from Zachary (age 8) with me for the World Joy Project!

The happiest places in the world aren’t overflowing with dance parties or daily jet ski parades (though maybe they have them in moderation?) They’re just actively working to be a little less exhausting to live in.

Sounds nice, right?

Take a breath.

Now ask: where can I remove friction? What can I shift in daily life to make existence less exhuasting for the people around me?

What would it look like
to make life feel a little less exhuasting
right where you are?

For yourself? For others?

Many of you already are.

Thank you to my friends in Sydney, Australia for sharing what joy looks like!

Maybe, instead of chasing happiness our work is to start creating spaces for it to thrive.

Spaces for each other to thrive.

Spaces where there’s enough space to pause and notice joy showing up in small, ordinary moments.

Be a stubborn optimist about it. You’ve seen what happens when people show up for each other. You’ve felt the difference a small kindness can make. You’ve watched ordinary moments carry more weight than anyone thought possible and you’ve decided … stubbornly … rebelliously… to be part of that.

Joy isn’t a contest, but if it is, nobody’s keeping score the way we think.

My guess it that the happiest people in the world aren’t doing something extraordinary or impossible. They’re just doing less of what makes the rest of us so tired.

• Thank you to everyone who has submitted artwork for The World Joy Project! It’s still a work in progress, so there’s still time to add yours to it here.

• This little corner of the internet exists because a few hundred readers decided it was worth keeping alive. If you’d like to help keep the campfire burning, you can become a paid subscriber here.

• Are you an educator looking for ways to spark creativity and courage in young people, you can find free resources here.