Gratitude Journals

Perhaps these ideas can help you start your own Gratitude List or Journal …

Your finances

Do you feel you have enough? Do you think it’s managed well? DO you feel a lack of money is affecting other areas?

Your work life

Do you enjoy your job? What parts do you like? Where is it taking you? Is there any part of you that is still wanting more from your job? In what way?

Your love life/ social life

Do you feel fulfilled and happy in this area? Do you feel loved and accepted for who you are? Have you got great friends?

Your goals

Do you have goals? DO you have a sense of where you are headed and do you know how to get there? DO you feel your goals are realistic for what you want to do and where you want to be?

Your physical life

Are you comfortable in your body? What parts are working well? What isn’t doing so well? Are you filled with energy? Do you enjoy the foods you are eating?

Your home life and possessions?

Do you feel you have enough? Or do you think you need more? Do you like the things you own? Have you got your favourite items that you treasure? What do you really long for? Is there anything?

Make a list of the things you struggle to be grateful for, and the things you already are thankful for. Don’t worry if the complaints list is a little long. We’ll sort that out soon!

How can gratitude get that moany groany list looking a lot lighter?

Well it’s all so simple really. When we change the way we think, and start to fill our lives with thankfulness, nothing else is the same. We start to change our lives forever, and they DO get better.

The movie and book THE SECRET propelled the magic of gratitude onto centre stage with a simple formula of think of it, thank the universe for it, and it happens. While there are a few important steps missing in this (for instance, you really need to act on a few things along the way as well for anything to happen) there is no doubt that the step of being grateful for the now, and for the future does help.

So how exactly does it help? Well let’s take a look:

It helps us in social engagement

What on earth has happened to our manners lately? Please and thank you go further than ever before, simply because no one else is using them! It’s true and fairly sad in many ways.

If you are a parent one of the most powerful things you ca do is teach your children to use manners.

And it’s not only the words- it’s the voice behind them. Parents often will tell a child to say it like they mean it. We as adults are no different. Use manners, and your world begins to open up socially. People watch us all the time as we engage with others. Gratitude is a way to showing respect to other people.

Think about the last time someone said thank you to you and you knew they meant it. It does something quite magical to your relationship with them. Someone who honors what you’ve given them or some work you’ve done. If they thank you for it, the first reaction is often to want to give them more. Because you know that what you give them will be rewarded again- or at least you hope it will be!

If we start thanking people around us for doing their job, for being kind, for giving us something when they don’t have to, then it makes everything run smoother. People gravitate towards people they think are going to reward them for their actions. A smile goes a big way too. Smiling is an easy way to say thanks. If it’s all you can manage, try a smile on a stranger today. They are likely to pass it right on to someone else.

It’s a bit of a coarse way of thinking about it, but if you really can’t think of any reason you should be grateful for people who are just doing what they are supposed to do, think of it as if you are just greasing the wheels. What that means is think about how easier it gets when you just give people a bit of your thanks. Sure, they may only be doing their job, but it’s far better than all those people who aren’t quite doing even that right? Thank people for the work they do, for any small kindness that comes your way and see how effective it is.
Andrew was going for a sales job. He knew he had the least experience and least qualifications to get the job. In face he wasn’t even sure how he’d got the interview. What he did know was he was very thankful to be given the opportunity.

The interview went well, though it was impressed on him again that everyone else was more experienced for the role. As he left the building, he slipped the receptionist an envelope. Inside was a thank you note for the man who had just interviewed him, thanking him for his time and for the opportunity.

That evening, he got the call to say he’d got the job. His new employee was very clear. It wasn’t his qualifications that got him the job. It was the card. If he was able to thank him at this stage, he knew Andrew would be able to build positive relationships with his client which is exactly what he was looking for. Being grateful won him the job.

ASSIGNMENT



Spend the next day thanking the people around you when they do something for you. Don’t make it empty words. Instead, focus on what the person is doing and then thank them sincerely (and to an appropriate level. Bursting into tears, and hugging a waitress passionately is probably not required if they bring some free water to your table).

See how it makes you feel, and if it makes you more open to gratitude?

Try and make it a part of your every day experience