Describe one habit that brings you joy.

I have one particular habit lately that I will freely admit brings me joy because it stimulates my mind and strokes my ego just a tiny bit.

That habit is playing the free New York Times games (Wordle, Connections, and the Daily Mini Crossword) and then comparing the results with friends. Solving them provides the mental stimulation as a personal challenge to see how well I do, while sharing results with a few friends is the piece that strokes my ego (I usually do well with Connections compared to them) but also helps push each of us to do better.

One of my friends has been relatively faster than the rest of us at solving the Daily Mini, but she wasn’t at first. After about a week she really started to kick it into high gear and started to kick my ass. Which is great for me because it means I don’t get too big of an ego over something that is rather trivial in the grand scheme of things, but it also provides her with something small to prove to herself she can compete with the rest of us. Just a little boost in confidence, you know?

Which, honestly, helping my friends ultimately brings me some joy as well, so it all adds up.