Why does joy – building it, feeling it, experiencing it each day – feel elusive for many? That is the question that a study of 1,500 HBS alumni explored, and they discovered that how people spend their extra time matters: “following your heart in your free time is the most powerful path to fulfillment.”

The key is to choose what you love, build what you love and stay close to what you personally value. This builds joy in your life, and extends to your feelings of excitement, satisfaction and enjoyment to work as well.

I highly recommend the full read: “How the Busiest People Find Joy” by  Leslie A. Perlow, Sari Mentser and Salvatore J. Affinito. I’ll break it down more in the newsletter next week with additional research on joy – the study of it, the experience of it, and the incredible value of it for you to build and pursue.

Pursuits that align with what you find personally rewarding will boost your life satisfaction four times more than activities that are considered generally good for the typical person. In short, following your heart in your free time is the most powerful path to fulfillment.

So what is JOY really? I loved the Aspen Institutes’ work on this, and the way they position joy in terms of its differentiation to happiness. Happiness is how we feel about things. Joy is an “experience of positive emotion,” and, it turns out, helps us be more productive (12% more!) and more resilient.

In addition to building and creating, doing things you personally value, they suggest “joyspotting.” Celebrate the joy of others, and be on the lookout for things and physical spaces or experiences that give you joy. Notice them, and allow them to shape you.

Dolly Chugh shares that she believes you can get better at joy – she calls it “high-kick joy” – have a growth mindset about your ability to find joy! I love this. Work at getting better and more practiced at joy: don’t expect it to appear. Go after it. Build it. Look for it (joyspot!). Go play a new sport. Take a new class. Get a dog! You can get better at joy!

Karl Barth writes so beautifully about joy and his ideas of it help frame all of the above: joy is the simplest form of gratitude. Following your heart, enjoying the pursuit and the experience of joy, is at the core, is gratitude. It’s a slowing down and a grabbing hold and a thankfulness.

For me, I get a lot of joy thinking about and planning outfits. I love fashion and pairing patterns and color in a fun, professional way. It gives me a lot of joy to browse, especially consignment, both for myself and my children. I also feel a lot of joy building this space where my thoughts can live and be informed by literature, ideas and people. I love a landing page! Something else that is giving me a lot of joy is helping others build or scale their dreams. I love coaching professional women and thinking together on how to build visibility and joy in their work, and I love supporting my team and my colleagues in the community who are working to make an impact.

Finally, I love the routines I have built: morning coffee and reading, evening coziness. I love bookends of a day – no matter what happened, or what you did or did not accomplish, starting and ending the day with a routine that is joyful and relaxing is the best.

Let me know what you are building, sharing or thinking about – what gives you joy?