In 2013, Dmitry Golubnichy started a personal challenge called the 100 Days of Happiness Challenge. To increase chances that he will actually finish this personal challenge, he made posts public over the social network with #100happydays hashtag. It soon became a Twitter trend that went viral. It requires a person to find one thing each day that makes them happy, for 100 days straight, and to post a picture of the same on their social media. He even created a website for the same (http://100happydays.com).
At the moment, the challenge has been taken by more than 8 000 000 people from 160 countries and territories around the world, and he has quit his job to inspire more people to choose happier living.
He has also given a Ted Talk for the same! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4UtPDaR3cA)
The website claims the following benefits of the challenge:
– Start noticing what makes you happy every day;
– Be in a better mood every day;
– Start receiving more compliments from other people;
– Realize how lucky you are to have the life you have;
– Become more optimistic;
– Fall in love during the challenge.
However, there has been some strong criticism of the movement as well. Major ones include:
- Being too materialistic in the process, since a picture would mostly require something tangible
- Boring friends on social media
- Forcing happiness since it is impossible to be happy for 100 days straight
- Feeling a constant pressure and actually feeling ‘unhappy’ if they forgot to post for one day and broke the streak
- Making the exercise public, couldn’t let them share the personal, happy moments
It is essential to learn where the challenge emerged from, why was it public and why it helped Dmitry. It is advisable to rather just pick what one likes from the challenge, maybe mold it to one’s convenience as long as the essence of it remains unchanged, which is finding something to be grateful for on your not-so-good days.
Feature Image Credits: Unsplash
Khyati Sanger
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