Gratitude Archives - Page 35 of 51

If Life Is Too Easy

Posted on December 1, 2021

You’ll find a way to mess it up. You don’t have to mess it up, but that does seem to be what many people do.

With ease comes complacency. Then you can fall behind the pack. After that it seems easier to play it cool then to try hard to catch back up. Then the seeds of self-destruction are being sown. You shrug it off and say you don’t care, when inside it is eating at you every minute. Envy, jealousy and hate become commonplace in your mind.

To turn that around you need gratitude. Appreciate all the little and large things in your life. Write it out. Don’t just think about it. Write out, ‘I am grateful for….’ It could be ‘I am grateful for my health, heat in my home, food on my table and a comfortable place to sleep.’

If life is too easy, we don’t appreciate it. There was no struggle. We want to prove we had to struggle so we create some drama. There is no need to do that. There is enough you are already struggling with unless you have the body, finances, relationship, education and career you always wanted. If not, get committed and be disciplined every day until those things are 100% how you want them. Until then, be grateful for every moment of being alive and being able to work toward your dreams.

Action Gratitude Reframe your thoughts

Play With What You Have

Posted on November 30, 2021

Sometimes we don’t have all the resources we would like or that others may have. For teams, sometimes a key player is injured or unavailable.

This hit home Monday when I spent the day watching my son Ryker playing with his school rugby team at a major festival. There was a comment made that they didn’t have all their players. The idea seemed to be that they may have done better with more players as there would be fewer tired players, injuries could be rested a bit more and some would have relished the higher level they played at.

I thought that could be true. Their chances of overall success may have been improved. But then I remembered another key player from another team who was still on the injured list since we played them a few weeks ago. What if all the other teams had all their players or more players or their better players?

Life can be quite random. Sometimes it works in your favour and other times it does not. So, play with what you have and do your absolute best with that.

Action Gratitude Time

Spend Time With Old Friends

Posted on November 25, 2021

Gratitude Health & Fitness Observe Progress Reframe your thoughts Think About It

Why Choose Anger?

Posted on November 20, 2021

You can choose your focus. Sure, different thoughts, good, bad and odd, come into your mind. However, you get to choose which ones you will focus on or hold onto.

You don’t have to swing at every pitch. You can let a few thoughts go by. Generate good thoughts. Let poor thoughts pass on by.

If you’re not doing this, ask yourself why. Do you enjoy the intensity of feeling? Are you keen to solve everyone else’s problems? All 8 billion people need you to help them?

There might be injustices in the world but your anger won’t reverse them. If you want to calmly write letters, lobby people with power to change things or put forward sensible arguments, then do it.

Try to stay away from the outrage, the anger, the poor thinking and the cherry-picked opinions and facts that keep you as a prisoner in that state of mind.

From what I can tell, the vast majority of issues come from a few people who have made poor decisions in life or else from misunderstandings or accidents. We would do better to reduce our involvement where accidents are more likely to occur. Also, take the time to understand a situation very well, from all sides, before being an outraged judge of it. Finally, volunteer to help kids and youth to improve their thinking and their decision making so they grow up to be good and useful members of society rather then destructive ones.

Redirect that powerful energy. Why choose anger? Especially when you can choose positive impact!

Gratitude Reframe your thoughts

Have Good Manners

Posted on November 15, 2021

Manners are free to exercise. They are simple to learn and understand. They are easy to practice. The cost of having them is small. The cost of not having them can be large.

Being well mannered is something in your control. Even if someone else has bad manners, you can still maintain your good ones.

Do the right thing. Have good manners.

Action Gratitude Time

Appreciate Your Freedoms

Posted on November 11, 2021

Unfortunately we don’t usually notice our freedoms until they are taken away. If you grew up free, you don’t know anything else. That doesn’t make you bad, just unaware.

There are so many freedoms. Try appreciating your freedoms today.

Freedom of movement. Freedom of religion, to drive, to associate, go for a walk, make a living and use your money how you please.

Imagine each one of those being slowly taken away. Appreciate them now.

Action Gratitude Observe

Notice The Good In Everyone

Posted on November 8, 2021

People are born and then develop their personalities. Billions, or trillions, of stimulus then have an impact on you and help to shape who you become. We begin to march, dance or drift towards our destiny as the characteristics become more pronounced or ingrained.

The sooner we can bombard people with good feedback and environments, the greater the chances there will be a bias for good. So notice the good in everyone. Remark upon it. Be sure to communicate it with intent to the person and those around them.

Not only will the person benefit from hearing great comments about themself, but you will benefit by looking for the good in people. With your radar seeking good, you are bound to find more good than anything else in the world. Those have got to be very good things for all concerned.

Action Gratitude Observe Reframe your thoughts

Only When It Happens

Posted on November 6, 2021

You can consider other perspectives. You can even prepare for things in advance. However, nothing can make you fully ready for exciting or challenging times. You can truly experience it only when it happens.

For example, a parent or grandparent dying is more impactful than you would think it would be. You know that in theory, we are all going to die. In addition, you’ve had years and sometimes decades to prepare for the moment. But when it happens, it can be quite a shock to the system.

Winning something special or seeing someone special after a long time can also be intense moment. You can guess how you would feel. But, living it is another level.

It’s good you can’t feel the extremes until those unique moments. It saves those very special or intense moments for only when it happens.

Action Gratitude Progress Think About It

What Would You Give Up To Save The Planet?

Posted on November 4, 2021

You can blame big oil companies if it makes you feel better. However, their products (oil, gas, plastics, etc) exist to quench people’s demand. They are not discovering, extracting, refining, shipping and storing oil and gas in the hopes that one day they will find a use for it and be able to sell it.

So governments and corporates can set the stage for change but it really comes down to the consumers of the world to make changes (forced or willingly) before we will see significant or meaningful change in environmental or climate impact.

With the world population expected to grow to just under 10 billion by 2050 there will be some additional strains on the environment. If countries haven’t been able to reach their Paris Accords targets previously, adding an additional 2 billion people in 30 years, a 25% increase, is unlikely to make the challenge easier.

So to reduce environmental impact, consumers will need to switch to new, clean energy sources in 2022. They / we will have reduce more, reuse more and recycle more if the world population has any chance of making a noticeable impact. To that end, what would you be willing to do? Give up on that new electric toothbrush and buy a bamboo one? Drive less? Stop air travel? Buy fewer clothes and plastic items? Only buy food from your country or local area? Reduce meat and dairy consumption to once per month?

I think most people find it incredibly difficult, or undesirable, to significantly shift their personal consumption habits whether it is to benefit climate change or not.

What would you give up to save the planet?

Action Gratitude Progress Reframe your thoughts Think About It

It’s Hard To Fail

Posted on October 24, 2021

Choose your hard. It’s hard to start, continue, finish and fail. But if you don’t do the first three, you may have to settle for the last one.

Now we should get into the definition of fail, of course. It means different things to different people. Traditionally it means you did not succeed with your desired goal. Though it can be defined quite broadly. If you haven’t stopped trying then you may not have failed yet.

However, if there is a time limit, then if you’ve past the time allocated, you could say you failed. This is most accurate in a timed activity, project, match or game.

It’s not fun to think you failed at something. But you have only failed in the attempts up to now. Perhaps you will succeed on the next attempt!

Until then, it’s hard to fail. But it can be the only way to finally succeed.