How often do you experience delight?

[00:00:00] **Aurooba Ahmed:** Well hello, this is The Daily Five with Aurooba. That's me, where we reflect on creating our best lives a little bit every day. Here we go.

[00:00:15] In the world of influencer marketing, there's this term, micro influencer. A micro influencer is someone who has somewhere between 1, 000 to 10, 000 followers, and a lot of brands choose to partner with these micro influencers for a specific reason. These influencers have a larger than normal social media presence, but not so big that people doubt their authenticity. Typically, anyway. Which means that when these micro influencers share products and other things, their audience converts better, because there's a lot more trust there, sometimes, as compared to with a celebrity who you assume is getting paid the big bucks to share a brand or something.

[00:01:02] My sister in law sometimes jokes that I'm an influencer for her. I don't have much of a social media following, especially not on Instagram. She says that because she trusts me. So, when I praise something, she believes me and is far more willing to give it a try. The same goes for me. When she tries something and recommends it, I'm far more likely to give it a try too.

[00:01:28] We influence each other.

[00:01:30] So, Everything and everyone around you is constantly exerting some kind of influence over you, whether you know it or not, sometimes in big ways and sometimes in small.

[00:01:45] You know that saying, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with? It's because the people you spend the most time with have an outsized influence on you, and so you should choose your most common company carefully.

[00:02:01] As an aside, seeing as so many of us spend a very large amount of time at work, this can sometimes be hard, and this is why choosing who you work with is sometimes far more important for your happiness and well being than what you work on. I learned this lesson the excruciatingly hard way, but you better believe I have learned it well.

[00:02:25] So, what's the point? The point is that a couple months ago I replaced all my everyday drinking glasses with these heavier ribbed glasses that come with glass straws and lids. And, an average drink of water turned into a delightful experience every time, and making Tang, yes, I love Tang and I make it very often, became a fun experience that was even more delightful than before.

[00:02:54] I took this everyday thing and turned it into something intentionally delightful. It's maybe a little wild how much happiness those glasses bring me.

[00:03:05] So, this podcast, it's about creating a better life every day, right? A little bit at a time. Well, finding delight in your every day is creating a better life, especially when it's wholesome, without any bad side effects. I'm not talking about junk food, even if it delights you. That is not necessarily wholesome, per se.

[00:03:29] The glasses make my daily hydration experience more delightful. And all it cost me was a few extra bucks than the average glasses every other household around me has. I kid you not, it's actually true. I don't know how it happens, we all have the same sale or something, I don't know.

[00:03:47] We often choose function over ornament for all kinds of reasons. Minimalism or an aesthetic that is minimalist, budget, quick, easily accessible, it was the only thing there, etc. But much like we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with, the quality of our lived experience is the average of what we most often surround ourselves with.

[00:04:14] So, Take a look around at what you surround yourself with. Does it delight you? Could it? What would you have to change for your average day to become a little more delightful? I think that it could be quite worth it to make that change. Not all at once, don't go changing everything, but what's something small you could change, something that you have to deal with all the time?

[00:04:42] If you made it more delightful, would you have a better time? Would you be happier? I would argue that you probably would be.

[00:04:54] Thanks for listening. Same time tomorrow?