About

Hello! I’m Daphne.

I left the corporate rat-race eight years ago and never looked back. I wanted control over my life, doing work that I enjoyed, spending time with the people I love. I wanted to wake up happy and go to bed ready to die in my sleep because I’d lived a day worth living.

This blog was born when a friend challenged me to help others achieve a similar lifestyle, so that they too could love their lives.

In my experience, there are only a few things we need to do if we want to love our life:

How you can have a life you love

No one has all the answers, and I’m not trying to prescribe anything to anybody. I certainly don’t pretend to be perfect, and a lot of what I write is what I’m still in the process of trying to do myself.

It takes a few years to turn a life around, so patience and a willingness to stick with the process are essential. It took me about 5 years to get from a point where I didn’t like my life very much to loving every single day. You may get there faster, just don’t expect things to change overnight.

I’ll share what I know of the process in twice-weekly posts that cover:

  • Practical life skills such as managing money
  • Approaches to building good relationships
  • Finding meaning in work
  • Personal development and spiritual growth

What I’m working on now

Two chance incidents helped to point me in the direction I want to go now. The first is a phrase I once heard which stuck in my mind: “A week from now, I will be a better person than I am today.” I thought that was a beautiful way to describe a beautiful way to live.

The second incident provided seven specific areas I could work on to become a better person. I was browsing some roadside carts selling gift items while waiting for a friend, when my eye caught a little plaque that gripped my heart instantly. These were the words on it:

Think Deeply
Speak Gently
Love Much
Laugh A Lot
Work Hard
Give Freely
Be Kind

Those seven little phrases sum up my philosophy for living well. You may also enjoy another poem that inspired me to live in a certain way:

Dance Like Nobody’s Watching
Dream Like You Will Live Forever
Live Like You’ll Die Tomorrow
Love Like It’s Never Going To Hurt

What you can do now

Subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe via email for free updates delivered straight to your reader or inbox. Try Joyful Days for a month to see if the posts help. You can easily unsubscribe later if you change your mind.

You can also follow me on Twitter which is the latest cool thing on the Internet.

Write me an email to request specific issues you’d like me to write about, or just to say hello. I appreciate knowing who my readers are and if you’d like to tell me more about yourself, you’ll make my day.

Thank you for visiting. I wish you a wonderful life.



  • Comments by Readers

  • nudgeme: Hi Daphne Lovely to see a post on Joyful days in my Google Reader this morning – and such an uplifting one at that! I concur with...
  • vered - blogger for hire: “Which is partly why I’m blogging less now – I have a happy life to keep me occupied!” This is great. You...
  • Tess The Bold Life: I can attest that they all work. I’ve even been quite happy in the middle even though I’m sliding out of that...
  • J.D. Meier: Excellent rundown. I used to think happiness was doing nothing, then I found out it’s actually doing something. It’s got to...
  • Megan "JoyGirl!" Bord: The “work on your terms” is interesting to me, especially your suggestion that it doesn’t mean we...
  • Annaly: The tongue is a had thing to get control of, but I like your concept of good and bad gossip.
  • Hilary: Hi Daphne – the points you describe so well are so true – Believe in Something – the Dale Carnegie quote .. if we occupy ourselves, we live...
  • Lance: Hi Daphne, This is so good to read! And really, reading this I feel a deep sense of happiness both for you, and within you. Daphne, this is...
  • Baker: Wow. I have to mention that these tips here are very powerful. This is excellent. I can definetly see that you really did an amazing job at...
  • Carla: I can definitely relate to having something to look forward to. When you live your live day by day in a tape loop, it can make things pretty...
  • James Gray: To say that there is no such thing as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ just because they seem to require opposites makes no...
  • MJ: Maybe there are individuals who may have gone through an expereince that would follow.. having been able to choose to be in one Parallel...
  • Hulbert: Hi Daphne, gossiping isn’t really that big of a problem for me because I tend to not hang out with people that just gossip all day....
  • Sara: Daphne — It’s been some time since I visited and I’m glad I came by today. I liked all your suggestions about handling...
  • alessandraelle: Thank you for using my photo and for the exact credits! :-) Ciao from Italy.
  • Daniel: Heya Daphne! Great seeing a new post from you in my reader. :) I too wrote about that story (Socrate’s Teaches The Test of 3)...
  • Daphne: Daphne! Hi, it’s the other Daphne! :) I LOVE the Socrates story – I hadn’t heard it before. I now have a sticky note in...
  • Island Girl: Dear Daphne I have recently moved to a very small island where people do nothing but gossip. I came knowing this would be the case but...
  • Hilda: I used to love a good gossip! Not so much anymore though. I love to hear and pass on good news, but I’m not into the nasty stuff now....
  • Evelyn Lim: I enjoyed reading the story about Socrates that you posted. I don’t like to engage in gossips myself. I have few opportunities to...