What do you keep track of?
How to navigate and find joy in a number-obsessed world
Lately, numbers seem to be running our lives.
And I’m not even talking about the understandably important numbers in our lives like the ones in our bank balance.
I’m talking about numbers in social media, like likes, hearts and followers. If you’re in my line of work, that is running an online business, you get extra numbers to factor in the equation, like the number of readers of your newsletters, the number of opens and of followers if you’re on Instagram.
When we want to say that someone is successful, we mention their numbers.
It’s something that we all do and there’s nothing really wrong with it. But maybe it’s getting a bit out of hand. Because in a number-oriented world, we all lose our space and our individual magic.
Any single person is so much more than a number.
Numbers can make us lose sight of what our true values are and push us to eternal comparison. That’s where we all lose.
Who can ever win at the number game?
Some time ago, I joined an Instagram challenge and for one post, we had to go over our pictures with smiles.
That got me thinking about how much we smile. I went over my pictures for clarity and decided then and there, that this was something worth keeping track of with numbers.
Do you keep track of your smiles?
Tieni mai il conto dei tuoi sorrisi?
Here’s what I found going over my phone gallery.
So many smiles, so many memories and so many different reasons to smile over the last years.
There's the end of lockdown smiles. They're a bit stunned, hesitant but hopeful.
Then there are the smiles of triumph, the" I didn't think I'd be able to pull it off but I did "smiles. The smiles of pride, satisfaction for hard work paying off. The smiles that only you truly know what they’re about.
Then there are the softer smiles. The ones of quiet joy over things like the perfect cappuccino, the sunny day, the inspiring conversation. I'm so glad I took pictures of them. Now I remember each and every one of these fleeting, intense moments of which life is packed.
And then, there's the " I feel lovely today" smiles. Aren't they the best?
I don't want to forget any of them.
Maybe I don’t want to actually keep track of the number of smiles because then, that would be a new sort of pressure but I do like the idea of basing my memories on them.
Phones nowadays make this incredibly easy because most of them can detect smiles in pictures and group them for you.
Clearly, not all smiles mean happiness or joy. But it is a great place to start.
It can also be an incentive to take selfies to record beautiful moments that might pass unobserved but pepper our existence. Like the perfect cup of coffee. Or the joy of having nailed a recipe you thought was hard. A lovely conversation where you felt connected with another person.
It’s also a moment to reflect on what elicited a smile in you.
Here are things that have been known to bring big smiles on my face:
After meal conversations, while you declutter the table, have that last cup of coffee and try to find another excuse to not get up because the chat is so perfect.
Going to the mercato settimanale, farmer’s market, and buying a whole bunch of season produce that you can’t wait to eat.
Meeting old friends unexpectedly and catching up.
A rainy day with your favorite book.
A glass of your favorite prosecco ( in my case Ribolla Gialla)
When the bartender at the bar all’ angolo around the corner remembers your birthday
The smile when you get back home after a long day and your dog and cat rush in to welcome you back.
The silly grin you get at looking back at old pictures of yourself. How far we’ve come!
The list could go on and on. But you get the idea.
Smiles might not be an indicator of happiness but there are proven benefits to smiling. Besides, making a list of what makes us smile gives us a clear idea of what we want more in our lives no matter how silly it can appear to others.
After all, life is too short to be unhappy.
Anyway, I’m curious, what does your smile list look like?
Grazie di leggere! Thanks for reading!
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I love this post, Elfin. Such a beautiful way to shift our perspective from "numbers", achievements, results, instead of what life is really about. Your writing is very inspiring to me :)