A few posts back we talked about how your mindset can turn a hell into a heaven and the other way around. It would seem that life sought to provide me a personal example. My 2024 Toyota Rav 4already has a bad sensor that needed to be replaced. They informed me when I made the appointment it would take roughly 30 minutes and I could wait. So, after my 10 hour work day I made my way to the dealer. Upon arrival, Iwas told it would now be a 2 hour affair as they had to check other parts as well.
A few things come to mind here. Of course after a 10 hour workday I could easily be irritated about having to wait 4 times as long as I was told. I could have brought a book or some other form of entertainment. I could have arranged a ride to go home and come back when it was done. All of this would be legitimate to think and feel. It would also lead to anunhappy and stressful evening.
Instead, I am going to look at and use this time constructively. I shall avail myself to the available coffee and snacks. I will use my cell phone to write this very blog you are reading now. Most importantly, I shall focus on the fact that I am so grateful to have the vehicleI do.
Both of these sets of facts are true. They both also come with an entirely different set of feelings. Would it be better if I had my laptop? Sure. It is far easier to write on that. Am I grateful that I can still write on my phone? Absolutely!
Life is full of choices. One of the most important is what we choose to focus on. As you can see, the difference can be between feeling stressed and feeling grateful. That may not seem like a big deal in the course of an evening. If you put enough of those evenings together, it is the difference between a negative and stressful life, or one where you choose to focus on gratitude and opportunities.
A simple choice to smile when you wake up may not seem like much. Done repetitively, it can become a lifestyle! What do you do first thing when you wake up? Go to the bathroom? Pour a cup of coffee? Many of us reach for our phones. That is about the worst thing you can do! Exposing yourself to outside influences before you have had an opportunity to determine and set your own mood is simply dangerous.
When you smile, and i would add feeling one thing you’re grateful for, YOU set the tone for your day. A simple affirmationsuch as, “No matter what happens today, I will make the best of it and keep smiling.” May sound silly at first. Done for a month and it becomes who you are.
Don’t you deserve to determine your attitude towards your own life? I believe you do. The question is, do you?
We started this blog on Thanksgiving in 2012. Every Thanksgiving we celebrate being able to bring inspirational and empowering thoughts and information to you. Of course the focus today is on gratitude. We are followed in over 200 countries, so what we can be thankful for can vary.
There are some universal things that we may not stop to appreciate that at truly amazing. Take your body. It turns food into energy and materials that help the body grow and repair itself. Speaking of repair, think of what it does when you get a cut. Before long, it is completely gone, or in some cases you are left with a scar. Can you imagine if the body did not repair itself and you were left wearing all of the injuries inflicted onyou?
We can expand to think of how nerves work to help us experience the world of touch, taste smell and hearing. Think of all the cells in our bodies and how they work together. Our immune system is a miracle in itself.
Today, when we count our blessings, do not forget to include all the Miracles existing in your own body. There is always something to be thankful for.
Look at this list of amazing things that gratitude can do! It may be hard to believe, in fact you shouldn’t. Don’t take my word for it. Don’t take the word of whoever made this picture. When I was still in the early phases of my self-improvement journey, someone told me this very thing. I decided to try it for 30 days to prove them wrong. You can hear the whole story in my first book, A Happy Life for Busy People.
That is exactly what I am recommending here today. Honestly do your best to be grateful as often as you can for 30 days straight. If you stumble and have a negative day, just dust yourself off and try to go for 30 days after that. I guarantee it will transform your life for the better. With Thanksgiving being tomorrow, what a perfect day to start!
If you need help on how to start an attitude of gratitude, either search ‘gratitude’ on this blog, or even Google how to become grateful. So many people from Oprah to the Dalai Lamaknow the power of gratitude, so there is plenty of information online!
I would love to hear your results of this experience, or any experience you have with the power of gratitude. Let’s share and inspire each other!
Last post we discussed the single best self-improvement activity you can do. If you haven’t read that post, I recommend giving it a look. In my own life, gratitude has been one of, if not the, most powerful tools to help me live an amazing life. If you spend any time at all in the self-improvement arena, you have no doubt heard a lot about gratitude. It had a prominent role in the movie The Secret. For good reason. Gratitude can bring you peace. It can take you from feeling like you are constantly chasing the next thing, to feeling abundant and happy. That is without any change in outside circumstances. After developing an attitude of gratitude, even if things do go south, you will be able to weather them a lot better.
If gratitude is so powerful (it is) then why are we not all using it? If gratitude can transform our lives in so many positive ways (it can) how come everyone is not engaged in a ritual that will bring more gratitude into their lives. One of the reasons is the methods that have been suggested. They can seem labor intensive. Really, for the return they offer it is well worth it. Let us consider doing a gratitude journal. It is probably the most suggested activity. I even wrote a section about it in my second book, Living the Dream. You basically write 3 to 5 things you are grateful for every day and why you are grateful for them. This not only gives you the initial hit of dopamine, the feel good chemical in the brain, but rewires your brain. Knowing that you will be sitting down to write this list has your mind subconsciously on the lookout for things that you are grateful for to write down. This is a very good thing.
The problem with this method is that in a world where everyone is super busy and wants everything yesterday, taking 5 minutes to write in a journal or a notebook can seem impossible. This can seem like too much work even for people who spend hours scrolling through their phone. That brings very little, if any, positive things into their lives. This, however, is the secret to our new method. Sense we seem addicted to scrolling mindlessly, let us use it to our advantage! All you will need for this activity is a cell phone and an urge to feel more grateful.
Here is the secret method. In your gallery of pictures, create a separate album of pictures of things you are grateful for. This could be your spouse, your family, your dog, your car, a beautiful sunset or anything else that you are grateful for. Had a great vacation? Throw a picture of that in there. Love a particular restaurant? How about a picture of you there? Someone who just makes you smile by the thought of them? Maybe a picture of them or even both of you together? You could even have pictures of quotes that remind you to be grateful. The possibilities are endless. Then, in one of your scrolling sessions, open the album and look at the pictures. Much like the journal, done long enough it should train your brain to think of and look for things to be grateful for to add to this album. Even if you like other forms of gratitude, this would be a great one to add. I know I am going to start an album as soon as I finish writing this post. My first picture will be of Margie and I in Jamaica for the first time. I was able to make one of her dreams come true and I am grateful for that. Not to mention, I am grateful for her and the love we share.
I encourage you to create a grateful picture album on your phone today. The coffee shop I am writing this in is about to close which will force me to stop writing, go home and get some things done and start working on my gratitude album! What will be some of the pictures in your album? What are you grateful for? Please share your answers in the comments below.
I heard Myles Munroe say something the other day that really resonated with me. “Even if you win the rat race, you are still a rat.” How many of us spend our lives pushing for more? The ironic thing is that we are pushing for more of the wrong things. Are we looking for more time with those we love? No. Are we pushing for more health and vitality? Usually not. In modern society it is all about who has the most and who looks the best. Can you imagine what would happen if you had both of these? Really imagine it for a second. You are the wealthiest and best looking person on the planet. Now what?
You could buy a nice house and car. You could vacation and live wherever you like. Everything would be perfect right? Not so much. You would constantly be wondering if people really cared for you or was it just for you looks and money. You would doubt everyone’s love for you. In some cases, this would be a legitimate concern. You may fear losing your wealth and looks. “Is my hair thinning?” “Does the scale really say I gained that much weight?” “My investments lost how much?” You may even be concerned that someone may have become wealthier or better looking than you. Sounds shallow, but if that is your goal, it may also be your concern.
The secret to winning the rat race is to get out of it. I am not advocating quitting your job and wandering around aimlessly. Instead, focus on purpose and power in your life. When I talk about power, I do not mean in the corporate or material sense. Power over yourself. Power as in being a positive influence for good in the world. Create that kind of power. Speaking of good in the world, altruism is a great way to overcome the rat race. The helping of others can give us the purpose that can set us free.
There are two more things that can help you leave the rat race behind. We speak about them here ad nauseam, but that is because they are so powerful. The first one you probably guessed is gratitude. Instead of striving to obtain all of the things you do not have, try feeling thankful for all you do have. This simple shift will have a host of benefits. It will have you feeling abundance instead of lack. It will slow life down and bring you a great deal of joy. It will also lead you to a greater deal of inner peace. Which leads us to our next point. If you still feel the need to work towards something, make that something peace. Find what gives you inner peace and not what satisfies a desire.
In our point about winning the rat race, you can see it is really no win at all. It will leave you with a life of stress, doubt and chaos. This is not to say that you should not try to improve your life or your standing. Absolutely do that. Just do not do it at the detriment of what is truly important. You should enjoy your journey and it should not be a race. In the race to an amazing life, let us all cheer for each other to win. Let us all work together to help everyone find gratitude and inner peace.
Do you know that feeling when you are on the top of the rollercoaster and it is just about to drop down? You know you are just seconds from having your stomach temporarily relocating in your throat. This is the same feeling I get when fall comes. I know we are only a short time away from freezing temperatures and nasty driving conditions. I am doing my best to find creative ways to embrace the cooler weather, but on any given day I would rather be sitting on a beach under a palm tree. Still, my beautiful lady loves fall. We are even planning a fall wedding in the future. I am going to have to learn to like it. Although, celebrating our anniversary in the Maldives would not be a bad plan.
The reason I bring this up, is that we all have challenges in life. It is our perception of them that determines their degree of difficulty. I know this intellectually. It is time I start applying it emotionally. Therefore, I have decided to be grateful for the cold weather. When I made this decision, a lot of positive things about that season came to mind. I tend to stay home more. For me, this means more time with the most beautiful woman in the world (I might be biased) and delicious meals she creates. It gives me time to write more. There is no better way to strengthen our resolve than when it is challenged. It is easy for me to be happy sitting under that palm tree, but what about when it is below zero and I have a snow shovel in my hand?
Will this have me looking forward to the temperatures dropping? Not at all. What it will do is strengthen my ability to find what I should be grateful for in any situation. It will allow me to finally complete my fourth book. We will reach the milestone of 1000 days straight putting out content. Whatever is challenging you in your life, find ways to put it to work for you. I would love to hear how all of you do this.
I love to fill my day with moments that make me smile. Better yet, I like to be fully aware and appreciate those moments. Too often we fail to understand the value of simple moments of joy until they are gone. This is just one of many reasons to be present during your day.
When we are not slaves to distraction, we can feel the joy in our hearts that these simple moments bring. Another way is to reflect on moments in your day that bring you joy. As I’m writing this, I am doing just that. Let me tell you, it is making me smile just thinking about, and being grateful for them.
Some of these moments for me are waking up to see comments from readers of this site like you. It is that first sip of coffee in the morning. One of my favorites is coming home from work and first setting eyes on my beautiful fiance. What are your simple moments of joy and how can you better appreciate them?
All of us here know the importance of gratitude. It can keep you in the vibration of having enough and feeling… well.. grateful. It also can help you attract what you desire quickly and efficiently.
Staying in gratitude can be a bit tricky. Especially when life does not go according to plan. There have been multiple times I’ve went to Starbucks and they haven’t had coffee. Can you imagine? The biggest coffee chain in the world, and no coffee. I’ve been on my way to work and had my exhaust ripped off by a pile of ice. You wake up to discover your allergies didn’t feel like staying at home today.
What are all these situations? First world problems. What do I mean? I can afford to go to a coffee shop and get a cup of coffee. Hell, I have access to clean water to make coffee. Even the the exhaust fix was expensive, I have a car and the job I was going to. I livewhere there is allergy medicine. Often the world gives us these challenges to remind us how good we have it most of the time. If you think your situation is bad, look around,someone always has it worse.
How often do we find ourselves complaining about our lives and forgetting to be thankful we have one? It is the middle of the week. Let us take a deep breath, refocus, and be grateful for the life we have. Even if our life has challenges, the fact that we are still here allows us to face them and conquer them. Let us be grateful for the life we have today.
SECRET 2 AN AMAZING LIFE 