Tag: grateful mindset

30 DAY GRATITUDE JOURNEY DAY 27 – IT IS THE LITTLE THINGS

Today is a day that could fill a book. What do I mean by that? Test this out. For just about 10 minutes, sit down and think of all the little things you use every day that you are grateful for. If you find this difficult at all, switch it up. Think about all of the little things that you could not, or would not, want to do without. It would be surprising if you ran out of things to think of in those ten minutes. There are, in fact, certain things that give you several things to be grateful for. This is an exercise you could repeat daily that would turn the mundane into a swelling of grateful emotions and feelings. This all sounds like a bunch of hype, so let us dive in and take a look at what we are discussing here.

One of the first things that pop into my head is my toothbrush. First, it was a wonderful gift from my lovely lady. Second, it helps keep my oral health up to date. This saves me money in the long run. I imagine the people I talk to throughout the day also appreciate it. In that same thought, how about deodorant? If you run out it can be a little of a touchy situation. If not for you, certainly for those around you. Clean water? Without it the toothbrush would be a lot less effective. It also helps me make coffee which I am extremely grateful for. When was the last time you turned on the tap and thought to yourself how lucky you were to be able to access clean water without much of a thought? Would you believe 26% of people do not have that same access? With war raging through the world, this number is sure to climb higher. Can you imagine being without clean water?

We really didn’t even leave the house, which is also something to be grateful for, and we have several things to be grateful for. Let us look at something that is often reviled – the cell phone. Yes, it is true that it has hampered personal communication. Yes, it makes for many distracted drivers, but think of all the positive things your phone allows you to do. It allows you to capture moments with friends without having to carry around a separate camera. It allows you to listen to your favorite song, or happy playlist, anytime you desire. You can get the answer to most any question within a few seconds. I even have an app that will tell you what song is playing in the background. This has saved me much frustration. Not to mention you can stay in touch with loved ones making sure they are safe. Even if your baker fiancée fails to tell you how many bags of sugar you need to get from the store…hypothetically. The cell phone has also help cut down on the amount of graffiti in public restrooms!

See how one thing can provide us with endless things to be grateful for? How about credit and debit cards? You do not have to carry large amounts of cash on you or risk running out and not having enough. Going back to our hygiene example, how about soap? Very good to have. Not many people stop and feel gratitude for soap before washing their hands, but might do so should they ever find themselves out of it. The ability to wash your hands helps cut down on the chances you will fall ill or make others so. It also helps remove the sauce from those chicken wings you just ate. Soap, very grateful to have you aboard! Locks on our doors to keep us safe? Clothes to keep us warm, dry or over-exposed.

As you can see, there are so many little things that we use daily that we should be thankful for. Any one of them could cause a great deal of discomfort and inconvenience should they not be there. Next time you turn on the tap, wet your toothbrush or put on that deodorant, stop and feel a little gratitude for those items. Without them our live, and social circle would certainly suffer. How many items do you use daily that you could be grateful for? There are endless things that we take for granted that make a very positive impact in our life. Expressing gratitude for them would only help improve our life.

IT IS LATER THAN YOU THINK 🤔

This post comes out on a Monday. Back at work for most of us. We are busy working to keep the lights on and the bills paid. Before we know it, the week is over and we are exhausted. Socrates, and by the way of this post myself, are here to tell you not to forget the things that truly matter. I cannot convey my dismay at how many of us spend our lives majoring in minor things. I am not judging. I am guilty of this far too often myself.

This life we are given is a great gift. If we are not enjoying it, we are wasting it. You might be saying, “Neil, you do not know my situation. I cannot enjoy life right now.” You are right. I do not know your situation. There is one thing that I am sure of when if comes to your life, even if we have never met. That is that your life, and the lives of those you share it with are growing shorter by second. Each and every one of us will leave this beautiful planet and we have no idea when. It seems as we get older, or maybe face a serious medical condition, our urgency to live a life that matters increases. That is why you see so many people contemplating their own lives at a funeral of a loved one. It serves as a reminder that life is shorter than we think.

This thought of ever approaching, and uncertain, death is not to scare you. Quite the contrary. It is to motivate you. Life is meant to be lived to the fullest. Even situations that are not ideal. Your job may not be the one of your dreams. Personally, I am still waiting to host a talk show. Even in that job you can practice gratitude and find the joy. It can be your coworkers. It can be the interactions you have with the public or the opportunity to make their day a little brighter.

We pass by so much beauty and so many miracles on a daily basis it is beyond comprehension. Take walking by a beautiful tree. Have you ever stopped to think about how many years it took that tree to get to the stage it is now? What did it all need and have to go through? How many storms did it weather? Years of growth, fighting wind, rain and perhaps scorching sun. Still, here you are able to stand in its shade. Too obscure of a reference for you? Let us look at another one.

Working with the public is a challenge. I have done it my whole life. When you come to a coffee shop and the lady behind the counter greets you with a smile, do you know how hard that might be? Any smile we are given, whether by stranger or friend, is a tremendous gift! Think of what a smile means. Despite the challenges that person is facing, and we all are facing some challenge, they wanted to share a gesture of joy and acceptance with us. They could have thought of the crazy state of the world and scowled. They could have been overcome with grief and looked at us with tears in their eyes. Which are both gifts as well. Someone being brave enough to share their inner-most thoughts and emotions. Are you beginning to see how we are missing so much in life?

Aside from stopping and staring pensively at a tree, which might not be a bad idea, how can we begin to appreciate all of these miracles and beauty we are missing? There is a clue in the question. Appreciation. When we stop to be grateful for things, it not only adds joy to our lives, it helps us be a more appreciative and loving person. Who wouldn’t want to be around someone like that? Think of the plants in the islands in the middle of the street. Most of us pay them little, if any, attention as we drive by. While it is smart to keep your eyes on the road, a glance in their direction would serve us well. Can you imagine how dull and lifeless the street would look without them? This is just one example.

Another suggestion is to try and be present as much as you can. In the middle of a walk, stop and take a deep breath and soak up the moment. Who you are with. What is around you. You can combine this with finding something to be grateful for. I was behind a lady at the supermarket who was obviously in a hurry and was not keen to wait in the line we were in. That is understandable. How lucky were we that we were both able to afford groceries and that there were some there to purchase? In many places of the world this is not the case. We did not have to hunt or farm. We were not living in an impoverished country. Yes, long lines at the grocery store are not fun. Do you know what is worse? Wasting time being upset about being there. I am getting ahead of myself. We will talk more about that tomorrow.

SO YOU THINK YOU ARE GRATEFUL? 🙏

This is an interesting thought. So many people are talking about gratitude and its power to change life. What is ironic is that most people have an interesting definition of what gratitude really is. This was brought home when I was listening to the audiobook, The Magic by Rhonda Byrne the other morning. She said how if people asked her years ago if she was a grateful person she would have told them that she was. Her justification for that answer is that she always thanked people for a gift, or for opening the door for her. When we speak of gratitude here, or when you hear about the power of gratitude, it is far more than that.

Despite what we may have been told growing up, or even what we think currently, thanking people when they do nice things for us is not living gratefully. It is actually just really good manners. There is nothing wrong with that. If we want to discover the true power of gratitude, it has to involve more than that. True gratitude cannot be conditional. A few posts back we discussed how I was choosing to focus on what I had to be grateful for in my life despite the challenges I have currently been experiencing. In doing so, it has help me feel good and enjoy my life so much more. That is the power of gratitude.

How about you? Are you only grateful when conditions give you something to be grateful for? Here is a secret. There is always a condition to be grateful for. Gratitude, like much of life, is a decision. When you want to feel grateful, just look around. There are so many things in our life that we take for granted that we should be so grateful for. Our health for one. Going to work on a Monday morning can be tough, but doing so with a cold is even tougher. We can dread work or be thankful we do not have to deal with a cold while working. Things like sanitation, communication, entertainment choices we have, clean water, a place to live and a million other things. One of the best ways to appreciate things you take for granted is to have them taken away from you. It is rare you will hear someone who used to be homeless complaining about the color of their kitchen walls.

Even in the terrible situation of losing something, we can be grateful that it is bringing to our attention things we might have taken for granted. Even that is something to be grateful for. Here is another secret to an amazing life. Feeling grateful feels amazing! The more we feel grateful, the better the quality of our life will be. Do yourself a favor and start to work on developing an attitude of gratitude today!