Gratitude Archives - Page 51 of 52

Can’t Wait To Celebrate

Posted on April 15, 2020

Are you someone who can’t wait to celebrate when you get good news, big or small? It’s a great way to live. Celebrate every little success and every big one too. Don’t just wait for the big moments though. Sometimes they never come, or they don’t come soon enough and you’re not around for the party.

You can celebrate with a smile, fist pump, high five (with your family or when wearing gloves), fancy dance, arms over head, music, a favourite food, drink or person or whatever you fancy. Just be sure to acknowledge the good news or success. It’s a great feedback loop.

Celebrating successes, large and small, yours and others, builds confidence and brings joy to your soul. You’ll walk taller and feel more powerful. And it can be sooo easy to do. Try it.

Don’t wait to celebrate. There is not just one big finish line. Be delighted with your every step forward. It’s practically a miracle you are making any progress at all. Have you ever stopped to think about how many little tiny things have to go absolutely, stupendously well just for you to get out of bed, eat, digest and physically move your body to your work place?

Maybe this lockdown era will help us all appreciate all the little conveniences, daily miracles, and successes a little more. Remember, you don’t know what you have, until its gone. Ask anyone who is finding lockdown difficult or has recently had an accident and found their body parts not working so well.

Decide from today that you can’t wait to celebrate. Train your brain, from today, to find at least three reasons to celebrate every day. Maybe you’ll get up to 10 times a day by the end of the year. You’ll feel better for it. And so will everyone around you.

Action Gratitude

Success And Happiness

Posted on April 14, 2020

These two words create such excitement, expectation and desire, as well as so much stress and disappointment. Success and happiness are often confused or thought of as one and the same, but they are not.

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Decide what you want and go get it. However, once you do, you really should enjoy that success for a little while before you go out again. Let it bring you joy. Let yourself be happy. Give yourself permission.

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Abraham Lincoln

Even in these unusual and often challenging times, try smiling more. You can make a world of difference to someone by just smiling. You’ll also find that it will help to bring you more success and happiness. Win win.

Gratitude Time

Enjoying The Day

Posted on April 12, 2020

It’s easy to zip through a day and not really even notice it. We can all probably remember just going through the motions. Enjoying the day, however, that is a real skill. Being present and savouring the moments is critical. Remember to stop and smell those roses.

Today really was one of those days. Being present with my wife and children, for the whole day, was wonderful. Playing a family game of Ticket to Ride was good fun. Listening to the laughter from the kids upstairs, playing chase, was a delight. Watching the wet sponge battle in the garden, and then the funny water bucket challenge, was pure joy.

There were so many moments that had me smiling all day. With a temperature of 25C, clear skies and sunshine galore, it was a fabulous day.

I hope you had a wonderful Easter. I know not everyone will have, and our thoughts were with them throughout the day.

If you found yourself enjoying the day, I hope you are as grateful as I am for finding the joy in it.

Gratitude Health & Fitness

Sunshine Is Awesome

Posted on April 10, 2020

Oh my, having such a long streak of sunshine is awesome! 23C in London today. Bright sunny skies. 49% humidity. The last couple of weeks have been lovely, weather-wise. Today was a fabulous day for a long, solo run through Richmond Park.

Just me and The Real Estate Guys and that awesome sunshine. The two police at the gate into Richmond Park was a nice touch to ensure we keep our physical distancing. It would have been quite warm for them, so I felt for them. But I suppose it may have been better than a chilly downpour.

Wherever you are in the world, I hope you get some sunshine this Easter weekend. It does feel so nice on the face. It warms you up, cheers you up and can help lift your mood. Take some time to close your eyes and face toward the sunshine, even if it is for only 30 seconds. It certainly can be a life changing moment – in your mind, if nothing else.

That one action of turning toward the sun, (eyes closed!) could change your world.

Enjoy some awesome sunshine! ☀️

Gratitude Think About It

What You Say Reflects You

Posted on April 6, 2020

We all think that our spoken words describe something or someone else. However, what you say reflects you. What you communicate will usually tell us more about your current state of mind, values and critical thinking, than it will about your subject.

I have raised a similar thought previously in another post entitled, ‘Is fire good or bad?’. Putting that aside, what really brings this point home is what people are saying online and on Twitter about our now ICU’d Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

Leadership examples:

It is fabulous to see people like Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband saying good, hopeful and helpful things at this difficult time. They could have said something political. They could have criticised his policies or judgement in handling the matter. Or they could have said nothing at all. They did not, however, and they chose to send appropriate messages of well wishing.

Meanwhile, there were people who did not send their good wishes for a speedy recovery. They did not stay quiet, nor did they offer their thoughts or prayers to him or his family. You will have to look the comments up yourself, if you want to spend your time that way.

When I see such negative and inappropriate things written, or hear them spoken, I ask myself the following: What is the worst thing that he, personally, directly and intentionally did, specifically to harm you, without any greater consideration or benefit to a wider group?

Consider intent:

It is always best to first consider the other person’s intent. What is the most important thing for them? What were they trying to achieve as the very highest priority for them? When doing this, try to remove your biases and instinctual thoughts and try to get in their shoes and understand their motivation and highest intent. It’s not easy but frequent practice will help.

I believe Mr Johnson’s overriding intent, during this pandemic, has been good. It seems clear to me that he wants to save lives, protect the NHS and support people and businesses adversely affected by the situation. This is a big and broad summary of intent. It won’t be perfect. Nothing ever is.

So the next time you choose to express yourself, take a pause first. What you say reflects you, and it’s quite revealing.

Action Gratitude Reframe your thoughts

Feeling Low – Where Do You Go?

Posted on April 2, 2020

What are the best resources for resilience? When you are feeling low – where do you go? To whom or to what do you turn to? There are some great resources out there to help pick you up, re-energise and re-focus.

Certainty of outcome:
Right now, we are in such a unique moment in time. It feels like the whole planet is on the same page, or at least reading the same book. Sometimes, as with a riveting book, I’d love to sneak a peak at the last few pages. Seeing how this plays out, and when, would provide everyone with some certainty. It would probably give a lot of people a level of comfort and let them relax into it a little more.

However, just like every book or movie, we won’t know how it ends until we get there. We need to live through the twists and turns with resilience knowing there is an end and it will be fine.

Perspective:
Looking back four months ago, you may not have realised how amazing your life was then. As I wrote recently, we often don’t know what we’ve got til it’s gone. This is probably one of those moments for a large portion of the population in so many countries already.

Feeling low – Where do you go?:
To re-energise or re-frame things, some of the best tips I have, that work for me are: Going for a run, writing something positive in a journal, listening to a favourite couple of songs rather loudly and singing along, or writing what’s on my mind to ‘get it out’.

A great book to read, and write in like a workbook, is Dale Carnegie’s classic, ‘How to stop worrying and start living’. It’s got some incredible stories in it and great lessons and tactics to use too.

There are also some amazing resources online. These are based in the UK, but please add any from your country or others you think would help. Free therapy or counselling through the NHS. Info for Children and young people.

Helping Others:
If you can spare a minute, please answer the question, ‘Feeling low – where do you go?’. Click on the title of this post and scroll to the bottom of the page and leave your best tips in the comments.

With readers from across the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and dozens of other countries, maybe we could get a little compendium of top tips listed. It could help people, from around the world, to better deal with the new normal.

Knowing that you may may have helped someone get through their day will pick you up too, and hopefully leave you smiling.

Action Gratitude Health & Fitness Reframe your thoughts

Happy Mother’s Day! ?

Posted on March 21, 2020

Please do not go and see your mother today. It is the greatest gift you can give her. Yes, it is Mother’s Day in the UK on Sunday 22nd of March 2020, but please do not go to visit.

Your Mother gave you life and the most important thing you can do at this time is help protect hers.

My marvellous Mom lives 3,300 miles away, across an ocean, so there is little chance, in this no-fly era, that I would go and see her today anyway. But for those of you that live close enough to drive, or even walk, I strongly urge you to use Skype, FaceTime, Zoom, etc. or you can simplify and just call her on the phone.

The very last thing you want on your conscience, for the rest of your life, is to think that you may have caused your Mother’s early passing. If she were to come down with the symptoms of this virus within 14 days of your visit, you would probably never forgive yourself. Don’t take that chance this year.

And don’t use the justification that she is getting on and may not have many more, so we want to make this one special. Don’t turn many more into no more.

Have a lovely video chat or a phone call. Remember, she probably grew up in an era where people used the telephone anyway. It will remind her of the days of her youth.

If you really want to make an impact, by reminding her how wonderful she is and how much she means to you, spend the rest of your day crafting a lovely letter to her detailing why. You could even get it done in the morning.

Thank you and best wishes to all of the lovely Mother’s out there.

Action Gratitude Observe Reframe your thoughts

The Bright Side

Posted on March 20, 2020

There is always a bright side.

Sometimes we don’t see it and sometimes we don’t want to see it. If we are still reeling from an event or situation, we may not feel like looking on the bright side.

Whether you see it, don’t want to see it or don’t feel like embracing it, it is still there. Once you step over the little chasm in your mind, and sometimes begrudgingly admit it, it does feel pretty good. So why not get to that spot and start smiling as soon as you can.

From today, soon or recently for others, many of us will be experiencing the new normal. We may enjoy the idea of bits of it and loathe the thought of other bits. Either way, this is our global new normal. So we may as well look on the bright side.

Here are a few things I’ve observed:

It feels so calm. The streets are quiet with very few cars or pedestrians. We just need to be at home – nowhere else. No detailed and challenging calendars to check or update. Time with my son – we went for a run today along the quiet river path and enjoyed a great chat and sprint to the finish: he’s fast. We celebrated a big birthday of a friend on a Zoom conference call involving 3 countries. We cheered on two others having birthdays on Saturday and Sunday too.

People have been friendly, helpful, supportive, calm, pretty optimistic and resolute. Air and general pollution seems to be dropping rapidly and should continue to do so during the new normal period. This is fantastic in general but even more so for all the people that wanted more immediate and severe action on climate change – now it is happening. Schooling is going 100% online – how fascinating it will be to see how it works.

The world has changed. It seems like it happened overnight. There will be challenges ahead.

Remember to look on the bright side of everything. Make it part of your new normal.

Action Gratitude Time

We’re All In This Together

Posted on March 19, 2020

What a fascinating time to be here on Earth. What a story you’ll have to tell once we see the back of this situation. This may be the first time in the history of the human species that the whole world has the same common enemy, at the same time, and is communicating in real time, globally, to coordinate and win.

And we all have front row seats.

We are all experiencing this event with slightly different perspectives, depending on what experience, and life awareness, we have had before. For example, despite living in the same household all their lives, each of my children will use their slightly different past experience to make sense of the times we are living through. And, despite everyone on Earth having different perspectives, it would seem that we all want the same outcome: To beat the bug.

I love how individuals and groups are stepping up and popping up to do great things together and for others. Whether it is the medical or scientific world pulling together to find solutions or community spirited groups providing extra help in the local neighbourhood. Our neighbourhood group put a typed note through everyone’s door this week with an offer to help anyone on the street, for them to join the group Whatsapp, and/or call on them if we needed anything (it gave names, numbers and emails of those ready to help). How wonderful! Being fairly new to the street, I felt it was a great idea and really made us feel part of a caring group.

Everyone seems to be pulling together to make the best of the situation. Whether it is with jokes, memes, words of encouragement or empathy, I’ve been struck by the wonderful humanity of it all.

Now is our time to rise to the occasion. Be the best you can possibly be. Help others who are struggling at this moment. Think of who that might be and let them know you are available. Just knowing can be all some people need.

Keep confident and smiling.

We’re all in this together.

Gratitude Observe Reframe your thoughts

“Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)”

Posted on March 14, 2020

The world has changed. Completely. 2020 will be known as a pivotal year in human history. And it has only just begun! With more and more countries reducing people’s daily activities, and several countries going into full lockdown, the landscape is changing rapidly.

As with anything that changes, especially if it seems like it is getting worse, we feel nostalgic and sometimes sad for our loss of what was. How good we had it back then; back in 2019.

That’s when this song starts playing in my head. A power ballad by American glam metal band, Cinderella. “Don’t know what you got (Till it’s gone)”. It was released on the 21st May 1988: like an early birthday gift to me.

Although a love song, its melancholy piano, soaring guitar and anguished vocals have frequently reminded me over the years to appreciate all the amazing things we have. Every day.

It’s so easy to appreciate what has gone – though it’s then too late. Yet, it can be quite difficult to appreciate things in the moment. Mostly, this is because many of us are not practicing appreciation everyday. You’ll have more joy in your life if you strengthen this ability on a daily basis.

So today, more than ever, it’s important to appreciate how delicately balanced life and the world is. As people are going through hardships with the loss of loved ones or working through unforeseen financial challenges, be kind, be patient and be tolerant.

Take a few minutes right now to stop everything, close your eyes and appreciate the life you have right now. When you are done reflecting, you can even make a list of 10 things you appreciate in your life right now. Then keep this with you to review daily as the challenges of the days ahead unfold.

Being able to breath without a respirator might be one. The simple act of walking might be another. The ability to buy milk (the money you have, the shop nearby, the milk being in the shop, someone having milked a cow at 5am – remember, I grew up on a dairy farm).

Breathe it in and enjoy it now.