Remember the hours of joy and entertainment we had as children coloring with crayons? We could pick any color we wanted and draw any picture we could imagine in our minds. And we usually took our work pretty seriously, too. We didn’t want to be disturbed until the picture was finished, and we certainly didn’t want others picking our colors for us.

Then came the moment of glory, when our picture was placed in the position of honor...on the refrigerator!

As we grew older, however, for some reason we forgot that we still have choices when it comes to the "pictures" we create in our lives – which experiences we choose to have (the "scenery") and how we "color" those experiences. As a result, we miss a great deal of the potential joy in our lives. 

So what can we do? One option is to change our scenery – change jobs, explore a new career, move to a new neighborhood (or even a new city), try a new hobby, make some new friends.

If you’re not ready for something quite that drastic, that’s okay. You still have some choices about how your picture looks. Even if you choose to keep the same scenes in your life, you can choose to color them differently. How about reaching into that crayon box and picking out a few colors you haven’t seen in a while? For example, take an alternate route to work. Go somewhere or do something different this weekend. Learn another person’s job at work. Try a new restaurant or cuisine you’ve never had before. You get the idea.

Then take this new picture and put it on the "refrigerator" of your mind. It’s kind of exciting to realize that you do still have choices and that you can create the pictures you want for you life. Feel happier? I hope so.

By the way, I just picked out a purple crayon. It’s a color I hardly ever used as a child. I want to see what it feels like when I color my next life experience purple. Why not do the same? Go get one of those big boxes of crayons and a piece of paper. Now, draw a picture of a life experience you'd like to have. Pick your scenery, pick your colors. The choices are all yours.