You know, I was thinking the other day about how we approach our daily lives, and it struck me that it’s a lot like choosing a character in a favorite video game. I remember reading a review about Borderlands that really stuck with me. The critic said that for once, they didn’t feel the need to steer new players away from any of the four Vault Hunters. Why? Because each one was fun, felt powerful, could stand on their own, and made meaningful contributions to a team. Mastering their abilities was its own reward. It hit me that cultivating daily joy and abundance is precisely the same. We’re all different “characters” with unique skills, and the goal isn’t to pick the “best” life hack, but to find the tools that make us feel powerful and engaged. The journey to unlock your happy fortune isn’t about a single magic trick; it’s about building a daily practice where you feel capable and rewarded. So, let me walk you through seven practical steps I’ve used, woven from that very philosophy, to build more joy and a sense of abundance every single day.

First, start with a brutal, beautiful morning audit. I don’t mean a gentle journal prompt. I mean, for one week, set a timer for five minutes the moment your eyes open and write down the very first three thoughts in your head. No filter. Mine were often things like “Ugh, already?” or “I forgot to send that email.” This isn’t about positivity; it’s about awareness. You can’t change a script you don’t know you’re reading. That critic was right about the Vault Hunters—mastery is rewarding. Mastering your own morning mind is the first, crucial ability to learn. It’s your foundational skill. Once you see the pattern, you can choose a new opening move. My go-to now is a sixty-second practice: I say out loud, “Today holds something good for me.” It sounds silly, but it reshapes the entire battlefield of the day.

Second, design one tiny “win” before 10 a.m. Abundance is a feeling, not just a bank statement. The feeling comes from evidence of your own agency. So, pick something trivial and finish it. Make your bed impeccably. Clear your email inbox to zero. Write a two-sentence thank-you note. I’m a fan of the five-minute kitchen clean—wipe counters, load the dishwasher, put the sponge away. Done. This creates immediate momentum. It’s that moment in a game where you use your character’s ability for the first time and it just works. You feel effective. You’ve contributed meaningfully to your own team—which is just you today! That small victory proves you can influence your environment, which is the core of cultivating abundance.

Now, step three is where most people stumble: the input diet. We are constantly consuming—news, social media, podcasts, other people’s dramas. To feel joy, you have to curate your inputs as ruthlessly as a sommelier curates a wine list. I try to adhere to a rough 3:1 ratio. For every three units of consumption (an article, a TV episode), I need one unit of creation or active engagement. That could be sketching a dumb doodle, brainstorming three ideas for a project, or even having a deep conversation instead of a superficial one. This isn’t about productivity; it’s about balance. Passive consumption makes you feel like a spectator in your own life. Active engagement makes you feel like a player, a Vault Hunter on a mission. It makes the learning and mastering of your day feel rewarding.

Fourth, practice specific gratitude, not general vibes. “I’m grateful for my health” is too broad. Try “I’m grateful that my knee didn’t hurt when I walked up the stairs today” or “I’m grateful for the exact way the afternoon light hits my desk at 3:17 p.m.” Precision trains your brain to scan for good fortune. It’s like learning the specific synergies between your character’s abilities. The more specific you get, the more powerful the effect. I keep a list in the notes app on my phone, and I aim for two of these hyper-specific entries a day. Some days it’s profound, some days it’s “grateful the coffee was the perfect temperature.” It all counts. This is how you stack up hours of practice in the art of noticing joy.

Fifth, implement a weekly “abundance audit.” Every Sunday evening, I look back and ask two questions: “Where did I feel most alive this week?” and “What did I already have that provided that feeling?” This flips the script from seeking external sources of abundance to recognizing the internal ones you’re already using. Maybe you felt alive during a twenty-minute walk. The abundance was your working legs, the public park, the free time. Maybe it was laughing with a friend. The abundance was that existing relationship. Like trying out each Vault Hunter to see how they contribute, this audit shows you which of your own “abilities”—your relationships, your habits, your environment—are already generating joy. You realize you’re more powerful than you thought.

Sixth, embrace micro-connections. We think abundance is about big networks, but joy lives in tiny, warm moments. It’s making genuine eye contact and smiling at the barista. It’s sending a friend a meme with the caption “This made me think of you.” It’s thanking a colleague for something specific. I aim for three of these daily. They take seconds, but they reinforce that you are part of a web of humanity. You are contributing to a team, even if that team is just the ecosystem of people around you. It’s a meaningful contribution that costs nothing but a sliver of attention. This builds a daily sense of belonging, which is a profound form of wealth.

Finally, step seven: end your day with a kindness replay. Don’t just review your to-do list. Instead, as you’re lying in bed, ask: “What was one kind thing I did today? What was one kind thing done for me?” It doesn’t have to be monumental. Did you hold the elevator? Did someone let you merge in traffic? This practice does two things. It ends your day on a note of human connection, and it subtly programs you to be an agent of kindness tomorrow. You start to play the game looking for opportunities to use that “kindness” ability. And just like in that Borderlands review, when you learn to use these abilities—awareness, small wins, curated inputs, specific gratitude, audits, micro-connections, and kindness—they all feel powerful. They can all stand on their own, but together, they build a formidable arsenal for a joyful life.

The beautiful truth is, there’s no single “best” Vault Hunter for every player, and there’s no single “best” path to joy for every person. The magic is in the experimentation, in putting in the hours to see how your unique combination of traits and choices stacks up. The goal is to feel powerful in your own story, to make meaningful contributions to your own wellbeing and the world immediately around you. It is deeply rewarding to learn and master these daily practices. So, take these steps not as a rigid manual, but as a skill tree to explore. Start with one. See how it feels. The path to unlock your happy fortune is paved with these small, mastered actions. It’s already within your loadout; you just have to choose to activate it.