How Gratitude Helped Change My Life

A few days ago, I reached out to a friend for a favor. She eagerly agreed to help me out, and then I told her how much I appreciated her.

Pretty simple exchange. I needed something she could help me with. She agreed. I told her how grateful I was.

We're grateful to others for helping us out, but how often are we grateful for everything else that happens during the day?

If you're like I was for most of my life, not often.

And this one trick will transform your life in a matter of days. There are not many things I'll guarantee, but if you start keep reading and you put into practice what you're you're about to read for 5 minutes at the end of every day, I GUARANTEE your life will change.

The past is for reflection. The present is for living. The future is for planning.

Looking back each evening and finding things to be grateful for helps me flip the script on the narrative I may have been telling myself throughout the day.

Maybe the weather was crap today. 

Tropical storm rolling in got you…

Tired?

Headaches?

Achy joints?

That low pressure is not joke. 

So, how can you be grateful for it?

Finding Silver Linings

We have some cantaloupe and other fruits and veggies in the garden that need the water, so that's what I write down I'm grateful for.

Writing down what I'm grateful for each day helps me find silver linings in the things I dealt with that day.

Silver linings are important because I I move where I focus. 

If get stuck in a negative mood, things... all things in my life... start trending that way. 

If I'm in a positive mood, things trend that way. 

It's a matter of inertia, right?

Stuff still happens, but I get to decide how to react to it. 

What can you be grateful for in your life?

This exercise it harder than it seems, but just like every other exercise, it gets easier the more you do it. 

When I first started I had trouble coming up with things to be grateful for. I had been in a nasty funk after a divorce, and the life "glass" looked much more empty than full.

If you need some help: 

- start with everyday things like food in your belly

- a roof over your head

- electricity to cool/heat your home, and power for your phone or computer so you can receive communications like this

- family/friends that love you

- the fact that you can actually read this with eyes that work

I've tried going over the things I was grateful for in my head and actually writing them down. 

For me, it's much more powerful to write them down. You can chunk the piece of paper away in the morning, or keep a little journal. That part doesn't matter, but the pen on paper does... for me.

Here's how each day looks for me:

1. Self care: today I'm stretching. 

2. Activities: All the things I need to do for business/work.

3. Things I'm grateful for today. It's empty because I'm writing this in the afternoon, and I save my "Grateful List" until the final thing I do as I'm laying in bed each night.

If it's crossed out, it means it's done.

Some people love a calendar, or phone, or sticky notes. I'm a paper and pen guy. Choose yours, but stick with it. Like I said, I don't know many other things that will change your life in such a powerful was as just this one activity.

Once you have a few days of looking at the positive things... it's like a switch that flips, and the light floods in. 

You start looking at the "negative" things as positive, too. That's when you find the silver linings. And that's when you know you're heading in the right direction.

If you haven't checked it out, I have a 26 day email series called, interestingly enough, 26 Days 26 Ways. It's a daily email series with little helpful exercises like this one that take no more than 15 minutes of your day. Each one builds on the previous and get a little more challenging each day. Some is physical work. Some is emotional work. If you need a little something to spark some life momentum, this is a good way to do it. Check out out the course at https://iamnatural.me/26-days