In order to live your best life, you should have large goals you want to tackle–such as visiting San Francisco and riding a cable car, or studying French in Paris–as well as simple pleasures you can enjoy at a moment’s notice. To help you with the latter, here are 75 simple pleasures to help you enjoy the little things:
Simple Pleasures and Ways to Enjoy the Little Things With Friends
New Game
1. Invite your friends over for a night of dominoes, Scrabble, Risk, and charades.
2. Have a wine and cheese tasting party.
3. Scheme a harmless prank together.
4. Have a potluck dinner; ask each person to bring their signature dish.
5. Create rituals and traditions to celebrate each season with your friends. For example, go to an Irish pub each St. Patrick’s Day and have green beer, go to a screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” every October, and play Secret Santa each December.
6. Get a group of friends together when it’s hot out, find a hill, and go ice block sledding.
7. Start a book club with your friends. Take turns holding the meetings in each others’ homes; the host is in charge of the refreshments. You can read the classics, current bestsellers, or any literary genre you’re all interested in.
8. Have a foam sword fight.
9. Join a pillow fight flash mob with your friends (if you’re reading this by email, click over to the blog to watch the YouTube video):
Simple Pleasures and Ways to Enjoy the Little Things With Family
1o. Create a scrapbook to document cherished family moments.
11. Make homemade mini pizzas.
12. Try a science experiment: make a lava-spewing volcano or make a battery from a potato.
13. Have a water balloon fight.
14. Play with squirt guns.
15. Have a tickle fight.
16. Make banana splits.
17. Brush up on the constellations and go for a star-gazing walk.
18. Draw a mural together.
19. Have a family awards night and find something positive to highlight about each member of the family.
Ducks on Qios Lake
20. Create a “time capsule” with a few personal items and bury it in the backyard with the intent to dig it up in ten years time.
21. Visit a nearby pond and feed the ducks.
22. Put together a family recipe cookbook.
23. Create skits and plays. Have a talent show.
24. Have a family movie night. Make popcorn, put on your pajamas, and huddle under a large blanket.
25. Make miniature boats and float them in a nearby body of water.
26. Create a Compliment Board by hanging up a Dry Erase Board which everyone in the family can use to compliment each other. For example:
- “Dad’s hamburgers were great.”
- “John did the dishes without being asked. Thank you!”
- “Ann made her bed every day this week.”
27. Have a themed dinner night –Italian, Mexican, Chinese, and so on. Cook a national dish from that country, put up the country’s flag, and play music and watch a movie from that country.
28. Have a treasure hunt (if you need help planning one, you can use this guide: The Treasure Hunt Book).
29. Put together a jigsaw puzzle. Better yet, get several jig saw puzzles that are all the same and have a contest to see who can finish putting together their puzzle first.
Simple Pleasures . . . It’s About the Little Things
Lollipop
30. Listen to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.
31. Get a night mask, mist Lavender Pillow Mist spray into the air and/or directly onto your pillow, turn on some white noise, and get a really good night’s sleep.
32. Cuddle up with a loved one in bed.
33. Go out and buy a pair of jeans that fits you perfectly.
34. Slip into your favorite sweat pants and t-shirt.
35. Get some bubble wrap and pop every last bubble.
36. Bake a cake and lick the batter off the beaters of the cake mixer.
37. Put a $10.00 bill in the pocket of a jacket you don’t wear often and forget about it. When you wear the jacket again a few weeks later you can enjoy “finding” the money.
38. Blow dandelion seeds from a seed-puff and watch to see how far they go.
39. Have a lollipop or a tootsie roll.
40.Have an “old TV series” marathon and watch your favorite old TV show (Classic TV), such as “The Andy Griffith Show”, “I Love Lucy”, “The Twilight Zone”, or “Bonanza”.
41. Get a mug and fill it with a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils. Open a brand new notebook and start a journal. (You can use the journal prompts here for inspiration.)
42. Whistle your favorite song.
43. Get a running start and slide across the tile floor in your socks. Re-enact the scene from “Risky Business” in which Tom Cruise’s character slides across the floor in his socks playing air guitar as “Old Time Rock N’ Roll” plays on the stereo.
44. Make a decorative memo board: display photos, favorite quotes, leaves you find along your walks, fun to-do lists, and so on.
45. Check out a great novel from the library, find a quiet corner, and spend the afternoon reading.
46. Take out your old mixed-tapes and sing along with your favorite songs of yesteryear.
47. Look for a falling star and make a wish.
48. Get a Pez dispenser in a shape you love and fill it with cherry-flavored Pez (then watch Seinfeld and the Pez Dispenser).
49. Have your favorite breakfast in bed. Make sure to add a rose in a vase, just because.
50. Get a recording of a rooster crowing and use it as your wake-up alarm.
51. Enjoy the smell and feel of clean sheets.
52. Wrap yourself in a towel that you just took out of the dryer.
53. Dig your fingers deep into the soft earth.
54. Take 10 slow, deep breaths every hour on the hour.
55. Hang up a wind chime; place it where it will pick up the breeze. Sit back and enjoy its gentle melody.
56. Re-read your favorite children’s book (mine is “Charlotte’s Web”).
57. Change your passwords on all of your online accounts to words that make you smile.
58. Hang a dart board and practice your aim.
Simple Pleasures and Ways to Enjoy the Little Things Outdoors
Tire Swing
59. Go for a hike in the woods.
60. Run a mile.
61. Spend the afternoon lying in a hammock.
62. Hang up a tire swing. Swing to your heart’s content.
63. Run through your garden sprinkler.
64. Walk barefoot in the grass.
65. Bounce up and down on a trampoline.
66. Pick some wildflowers for your table.
Simple Pleasures and Ways to Enjoy the Little Things – Pamper Yourself
Mimosas
67. Get a hot rock massage.
68. Take a long bubble bath. Better yet, make it an aromatherapy bath.
69. Spend the day at a spa.
70. Have bagels, cream cheese, and lox on Sunday morning.
71 Have waffles covered with strawberries and syrup; consider adding Nutella (hazelnut spread).
72. Make a list of everything in your house that needs to be fixed and hire someone to fix it.
73. Take a nap in the middle of the afternoon.
74. Wear a pair of warm, fuzzy slippers.
75. Have a Mimosa (chilled orange juice and champagne) with your Sunday brunch. Make sure to drink it in a Champagne Flute and garnish with raspberries.
Related Posts:
1.Srikumar Rao On Happiness – Four Exercises That Will Make You Happier
2.Harvard’s Most Popular Course: Tal Ben-Shahar On How to Be Happier
3.37 Tidbits of Higher Consciousness
I Recommend:
1. How to Live Your Best Life – The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List
2. Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done
Marelisa Fabrega is a lawyer and entrepreneur. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as well as a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center. You can learn more about her 
