Last week I drove from Los Angeles to Orange County. If you know California, you know that while that’s only 50 miles, that drive can be absolutely brutal at the wrong time of day – taking upwards of 2 hours.  Ants alongside the highway move faster.

But for once, that shockingly didn’t happen. The sun was shining bright, white puffy clouds dotted a clear blue sky and I had absolutely no traffic.

Wait, what?

I know. It seemed too good to be true. At that point, I was almost waiting for an accident to happen.

Then, I remembered something funny happened earlier that morning.

I don’t normally turn music on while I’m getting ready, but for whatever reason I did. I hit play on the American Authors song “Best Day of My Life” just as I hopped into the shower.  I’m sure you know the song. It’s catchy, uplifting, happy and makes you want to sing along.

When I turned it on I thought I hit shuffle, but clearly I must have hit repeat. Blame the clumsy fat fingers! Because that song played over and over and over for the entire time I was in the shower. And there wasn’t much I could do about it. Except laugh at what a goober I was…and sing! 

Now, I’m not known as a quick shower taker, so I must have heard these lyrics a half a dozen times:

I had a dream so big and loud
I jumped so high I touched the clouds
Whoa-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh (Whoa-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh)

I stretched my hands out to the sky
We danced with monsters through the night
Whoa-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh (Whoa-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh)

I’m never gonna look back, Whoa-Oh
Never gonna give it up, No-Oh
Please don’t wake me now

(Ooh, Ooh-Ooh, Ooh)
This is gonna be the best day of my life
(Ooh, Ooh-Ooh, Ooh) My li-i-i-i-i-i-ife…

When I was finally done in the shower, I jumped out and turned off the song. But I caught myself continuing to sing it the rest of the morning. The repeat button was now stuck in my brain.

Do you know how many times the phrase “this is gonna be the best day of my life” is sung? In one go round? Eight times. Multiply that by five (for the length of my shower) and I must have heard it 40 times!

That’s a mantra if I’ve ever heard one!

So during my drive it got me thinking. What if we started every day like that? Not necessarily with a song – though you can if you’d like – but just something happy. A phrase, affirmation, mantra, wish, anything. Something we say out loud to the universe. Something happy and uplifting. Each and every day.

Marcus Aurelius (the Roman Emperor) once said, “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”

Could a daily, positive “morning thought” improve your happiness? I think so. Could it change your circumstances? Quite possibly. And if nothing else, it’ll sure as heck get your day started on the right foot.