About the Book
Discovering what brings you genuine joy and intentionally building your life around it — before the years run out.
The Story Behind the Book
A young girl in Scotland tucked a handwritten list inside an old book. She called it My Eleven Loveliest Things, People Not Counted. Decades later, a man in Idaho read that list, looked at his dog, and started to cry. That moment changed everything.
The Joy List is the result — a memoir-driven guide to identifying the experiences that bring you genuine joy and designing your life around them before the years run out.
"Joy doesn't announce itself. It arrives quietly, in ordinary moments, to people who are paying attention."
— Matt Smith, The Joy ListThis is not a book about being happy all the time. That's not real life, and if that's what you're looking for, there are plenty of other books that will tell you what you want to hear. This is a book about something quieter, deeper, and more lasting than happiness.
Throughout these pages Matt shares stories from his own life — some embarrassing, some still painful to write. He includes them because he believes you'll recognize yourself in them, and recognition is where change begins.
The principles of joy are universal. They've been confirmed by science, affirmed by ancient scripture from every tradition, and lived out by ordinary people across centuries of human experience. All you need to bring is a willingness to pay attention. The rest will follow.
"Most of us are not broken. But we are living without intention. We are waiting for joy to arrive rather than learning to move toward it."
— Matt Smith, The Joy ListWhat Matt discovered — through years of building businesses, raising a family, losing a business partner, hiking thousands of trail miles, and sitting quietly in a chair in the early morning with a smiling dog — is that joy is not a feeling you wait for. It is a practice you build. One ordinary moment at a time.
Inside the Book
The difference between happiness and joy — and why the cost of confusing them is a life spent chasing the wrong thing.
Why sorrow is not the enemy of joy, and how contrast makes joy possible.
Building your personal list — the specific experiences that bring you unmistakable joy. The list is a living document, not a contract.
How the stories we tell ourselves shape what joy we are able to receive — and how to change them.
Gratitude as a physical skill — one you can practice, build, and strengthen like a muscle.
The practice of being stopped by the world around you — before it passes unnoticed.
Protecting the things on your list the same way you protect your most important obligations.
From passive endurance to active design — building a life that moves toward what genuinely matters.
The relationships that make joy possible — and how to tend to them before it's too late.
Creating conditions for joy in the people around you. The well refills when you use it.
"Joy is available to you every single day. Not by accident. By intention."
— Matt Smith, The Joy List