Jovial July is the updated version of the challenge I created six months ago, called Genial January.
The idea is to spend the entire month without posting anything negative on social media, in either my own posts or comments.
I found it to be an extremely worthwhile exercise.
I repeated it for Affable April, and again found that it made me happier, more productive, and a much more pleasant person.
Which is why I’m going to repeat it again, for Jovial July.
How This Affects My Own Mood
We don’t realize just how much time we spend complaining, criticizing, and insulting, especially online.
I’ve worked very hard to become someone who does that far less often than most people.
I spent very little time on social media in January due to being crazy busy at work. Yet I was still shocked at how often I had to stop myself from writing something negative.
In April, I was writing full-time, and therefore engaging with people online far more. I had to actively stop myself from posting negativity a lot more.
Every time I refrained from posting a criticism or complaint, within minutes I was glad I had done so.
By the end of the month I was significantly happier.
I tried to continue the practice into May, but was less vigilant and didn’t keep it as a formal rule. Negativity crept in.
In June, I posted more and more criticisms and complaints. And my mood suffered.
My headspace was taken up with irritation over the ways other people behaved. I was obsessing over the things beyond my control that I always say people shouldn’t obsess over. Which made me more and more unhappy.
I can’t change what all the other people in the world do. But I can control my own actions.
Of course it would be wonderful if nobody on Earth ever did anything worthy of complaint or criticism. But that’s not going to happen.
My complaints and criticisms aren’t going to fix their behavior. So the best I can do is stop my complaints and criticisms to make myself happier.
Social Media Negativity Impacts You and the World
There’s a saying in sports: How you practice is how you play.
Every time you write something negative on social media, you are training yourself to focus on the negative, which is training yourself to be unhappy.
Whereas when you refrain from complaining on social media, you’re building the habit of shifting your focus away from the bad things in the world that you have no control over.
Or even better, you’re shifting your focus away from merely whining about bad things while feeling helpless, toward actually doing something to improve your life or the world.
Additionally, your posts and comments have an impact on the people reading them.
Focusing on the negative doesn’t just create your own unhappiness; it pushes that negativity onto your friends and loved ones as well.
Instead, you could be cheering people up by posting kitten photos, or hopeful news, or a funny joke, or updates about your life, or picking up the phone and calling someone just so they can hear the sound of your voice.
Now, when we’re suffering from a lack of human connection, going through devastating financial troubles, scared for the future, and uncertain over how long this will all last, is when it’s most important for us to band together and encourage each other to foster positive attitudes and focus on what’s good in the world.
We’ll get through this by supporting each other, not by dragging each other down through negativity.
And just to clarify, a request for help is very different from a complaint. If you’re feeling down and you need someone to talk to, you absolutely should ask for help.
But try to avoid ranting about the obnoxious thing a politician did, or the coworker who was chewing too loudly on a zoom call, or post that 837th complaint about people who don’t wear masks.
(Regardless of how much they should wear masks, if they haven’t been convinced by being insulted 9,000,000 times, they aren’t going to be convinced by the 9,000,001st insult.)
Below is an updated version of the original Genial January article:
What if I told you there was a quick and easy way to significantly improve your happiness, that would take absolutely no time out of your busy day. In fact, it will even give you an extra bit of free time.
Why Gratitude Journals Work
One of the most common pieces of advice in happiness literature is to keep a gratitude journal.
That’s not what I’m talking about here. I do recommend a gratitude journal – it only takes a few minutes a day.
But telling you to keep a gratitude journal is hardly novel, and I promised you something that takes no time at all.
Let’s talk about why gratitude journals work.
When you build a habit of sitting down every day to think about someone or something you are grateful for, you are training yourself to focus on what is good in your life.
This shift in your perspective will make you happier overall.
Social Media is an Ingratitude Journal
By contrast, many people treat social media as a sort of ingratitude journal.
They write about things that are upsetting, frustrating, contemptuous, or infuriating.
This has the exact opposite effect of a gratitude journal.
Those who engage in this behavior are training themselves to focus on what is bad in the world.
And by doing so, they are making themselves unhappier. (Along with their friends who read their posts.)
This is a big factor in one of the biggest paradoxes of the modern age: The world keeps getting objectively better, yet people keep getting unhappier.
Try a Month Without Negativity
Changing your behaviors and habits is hard. It wouldn’t be realistic for me to suggest you give up all negativity on social media forever.
But why not try a short-term change?
Many people spend one month a year going without alcohol, or meat, or doing some other sort of cleanse. That shouldn’t be too difficult.
This is where I get to how to improve your happiness without taking any time. Because you don’t have to *do* anything. You have to *not do* something you’ve already been doing.
I’ve created what I call Jovial July.
The rules are simple: You try to spend all of July without writing any negativity on social media, including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook posts or comments.
This includes complaints about your day, traffic, stuff that happened at work, politicians, your crazy uncle/roommate/neighbor, the general state of the world, and other people’s opinions.
What About Important Issues?
But what about important issues that need people’s attention?
Well, you can frame those in a positive way, about what actions people reading what you’ve written can do to improve the situation.
Instead of saying “People are suffering from abject poverty,” say “Here’s how you can donate to help people in poverty.”
If you can’t frame things in terms of positive action for people to take, either wait until August, or don’t post it. That’s the point of Jovial July.
You Don’t Have to Quit if You Make a Mistake
You may slip up. That’s okay. Nobody’s perfect.
This isn’t one of those challenges where if you post one negative thing, you’re “out” and stop doing it.
If you find yourself writing a negative/angry post or comment, you’re allowed to just stop and not post it.
Nobody will know, and you can even pat yourself on the back for doing a good job of self-editing.
Or if you’ve already written it, you can go back and delete it.
Or just ignore any responses, turn off notifications for that post, and try to do better going forward.
See How Jovial July Makes You Feel After a Month
Try this for a month. And as you do, monitor how you feel.
Are you happier?
More relaxed?
Suffering from less anxiety?
Do you have a more positive outlook on the world?
Are you spending less time on social media and more time doing productive or enjoyable stuff?
And is the time that you do spend on social media more pleasant?
If you do find that Jovial July is improving your level of happiness, you don’t have to stop after one month.
You can continue on to Agreeable August, Sympathetic September, and Obliging October. Or even Charming Twenty-twenty, or Loving Lifetime.
But start with a month-long commitment at first. If you don’t like it, you can always go back to your old ways.
[…] Try Jovial July to Improve Your Mood(Self Helping Yourself | Steven Ray Marks)A month-long social-media-negativity cleanse can do wonders for your happiness. For the month of July, refrain from posting any complaints, criticisms, insults, or negativity on social media, and see how it makes you feel. […]