Fall in love with your life again.
The old version of your life doesn't quite fit, and the new one hasn't taken shape yet. There’s joy in the mess. Let’s go find it.
I want to feel more alive in my life.
Joy Scouting
A simple, ongoing practice of following your curiosity, breaking from routine, and creating more opportunities for unexpected joy, connection, and adventure.
Each week, you'll get a new Scouting Invitation: a small challenge to try something different, explore the unfamiliar, and see where it takes you.
The Next 100 Days
I know something needs to change.
For 100 days, you'll get a weekly prompt to help you get honest about what matters, make one small move in its direction, and see what happens when you actually follow through.
Field Guide to Becoming
I can feel myself changing.
A year-long expedition for exploring who you've been, who you are now, and who you might be becoming.
There’s no map. But we do have a compass.
When I don't know exactly where I'm going, this is what I come back to.
Curiosity
Notice what pulls at you. Follow a spark. Try something without always needing to know where it leads.
Courage
Tell yourself the truth. Want something. Make a choice. Take the next step before you know exactly how it turns out.
Connection
You don't have to figure it all out by yourself. Be witnessed in the trying. Share what you're discovering. Connect.
Joy Scout Camp
Sometimes you just need an adventure. Think summer camp, but for grown-ups! Adventure, creativity, nature, play and joy.
Joy Scout Club
Joy Scout Club is the community at the center of all of this — a place to share what you're discovering, borrow some courage, offer some of your own, and be around people who are paying attention to their lives, too.
Hi, I’m Dana
I started this work because my husband died.
In 2016, Brad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In the middle of losing the life we'd planned, we made a promise to keep looking for joy on purpose, even when there wasn't much of it to be found. Brad died 101 days later. Somehow, despite the odds, I kept going.
In the decade since, I've been a widow, cancer survivor, caregiver, traveler, writer, retreat host, founder, partner, and about a hundred versions of myself I couldn't have predicted.
Eventually, I realized I wasn't interested only in surviving what happened to me. I wanted to know how to participate fully in the life I still had.
Joy Scout Project grew from there.
Fine is a perfectly acceptable answer to “How are you?” It’s a pretty shitty goal for your life.
Fine is getting through the week. Fine is "someday." Fine is a life you've quietly stopped paying attention to.
Joy Scout Project isn't about making every day extraordinary. It's about refusing to sleepwalk through the life you still have. About being brave enough to want something out of it.
You deserve better than fine.
“The great revelation never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark.”
VIRGINIA WOOLF