Life is not a flat line—it is full of ups and downs.
Some days you’re riding high from sunup to sundown.
Other days are so low you might wish you had stayed in bed.
And most days are somewhere in-between.
While it’s not possible to have all “up” days, your days and your life are consistently better and more graceful when you do one thing…
Consciously and consistently take time to be grateful for life.
Make gratitude an all-the-time thing
People, me included, recommend making a list of the things you are grateful for—your family, a promotion, your home—each morning or evening.
However, if you also start looking for—and feeling grateful for—the good in unpleasant situations, your thoughts and your life will rise to a new level.
Although you may not always remember to do it, it’s easy to be grateful for the things that make you happy and getting the things you want. But, trust me, there’s also something to be grateful for when things aren’t going your way.
Please humor me on this…
Take a few minutes right now to reflect on something you are struggling with. Then, find something about the situation to be grateful for.
Here a few examples to get you started.
If you don’t know something, be thankful because it provides an opportunity to learn.
Or you may choose to be thankful for one of your limitations because it gives you an opportunity for improvement.
And if you’re tired and weary, be thankful because it means you’ve made a difference.
The power of a change in perspective
A blind boy sat on the steps of a building, holding up a sign that read, “I am blind, please help.” He had a hat by his feet.
As one man was walking by, he took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He noticed there were only a few other coins there.
So he took the sign from the boy’s hand and wrote some words on the back.
Then he put the sign back in the boy’s hand so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon a lot more people were giving money to the blind boy, and the hat began to fill up.
That afternoon, the man who had changed the sign returned to see how things were going.
The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”
The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I just said what you said in a different way.” I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.”
Although both signs were truthful, they conveyed two different messages. The first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign conveyed to everyone walking by how grateful they should be to be able to see.
When you change the way you look at the things you normally take for granted and the things in your life that are scary or unpleasant, your feelings about those things will change.
When life gets tough, let gratitude spillover
When you expand your gratitude from a five-minute practice of acknowledging the good in your life to an all-day habit, regardless of whether your current situation is to your liking, you are happy with yourself and life. And that ever-present feeling of gratitude attracts even more good things into your life to be grateful for.
We’ve put together a PDF with six points you can scan throughout the day to help make your life an expression of gratitude. It’s free, and you can get it below.
To your success,
Bob Proctor
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