The Attitude of Gratitude

"Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” – Eckhart Tolle

‘Tis the season to talk about gratitude. Not the bullsh*t airy-fairy stuff that you see on Instagram, but real gratitude. It’s one of the most studied components of positive psychology and is one of the foundational actions you can take to improve the quality of your life right now – with minimal effort.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow where many people will partake in the food and drink but they won’t take the time to understand what it means to give thanks, to receive thanks, and how that can be incorporated into a daily routine.

Many years ago I met with Bob Proctor and his business partner Sandy Gallagher at The Westin hotel in Los Angeles. It was a really cool moment – just the three of us – and they pulled out a gratitude notepad. It was pretty simple: it just had 10 lines where you could physically write down 10 things you could express and feel gratitude for every day.

I’ve mentioned to you before how much I love the Day One journaling app , but there’s something about writing things like gratitude and goals with a pen or pencil that makes it so much more real.

So every day, Bob (before he passed) and Sandy would each write down 10 things they were grateful for. Now, if Bob and Sandy knew how powerful it was to make a habit of daily gratitude, doesn’t that mean it’s something you and I should be doing too?

When I interviewed Janine Shepherd on the Win the Day podcast, I asked her what the most important part of her daily routine was. Janine said, “Gratitude. It works. There's science behind it and it's easy to do. Even a simple thing, like waking up in the morning, and feeling gratitude for a comfortable bed or your morning coffee.”

If you know Janine’s story , you’ll know that she has every reason to wake up annoyed at the world, but she’s the best gratitude practitioner I know – and the results speak for themselves.

And isn’t that the case for all of us, especially when we’re faced with significant adversity through no fault of our own? When we wake up and we feel horrible, or we’re carrying wounds that make us hard to even focus?

Health coach Karen Dwyer shared how pissed off she felt about the concept of gratitude being brought up to her just after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis . Karen said:

“I didn't realize how low I had sunk until somebody asked me, ‘What are you grateful for?’ I reacted angrily, and thought “How dare you ask me what I'm grateful for when I'm now a single mom with two kids, I'm on an invalidity pension, I have no job, I have no car, I'm living at my mom's, and I have no hope.

At that moment I thought, oh shit, you used to be really happy, and you had a great job, you really loved life, you celebrated everything, you were out all the time, having fun with your friends. Now somebody's asked you what you are grateful for and you're having a visceral reaction.

It was that moment that I made the decision to win. I made a commitment. I wrote in my journal a commitment to make myself happy. From that moment, I realized that I could influence my health, my happiness, and everything else that happened in my life. It was like somebody just gave me the key to unlock my own prison.”

How powerful is that?

Later in the interview, I asked her what the #1 part of her daily routine is, and she said:

Practicing gratitude.

Elite performance psychologist Dr. Michael Gervais appeared on the show, which gave me an opportunity to see how the coach of the top 0.0001% approaches his daily routine.

Before he gets out of bed, Mike takes 60 seconds to do:

• One deep breath
• One thought of gratitude, and
• One intention.

What Mike loves about gratitude specifically is that one positive thought leads to many more. That’s why gratitude has been used as an antidote to anxiety and so many other things.?

From that upgraded mindset, Mike then sets his one clear intention for the day. Since he knows his purpose, his values, and how he wants to show up, he simply sees himself moving through that day with that high performance groove.

Think of it like how you’d warm up before a workout. All gratitude is doing is taking care of your mental mobility so you can be happier, more productive, and more efficient on any given day.

And when it comes to the Win the Day mentality, we view each day anew. Every morning, we make the decision to win – to give the best we’ve got on this day – no matter how much we may have lost yesterday. The gratitude circuity is an extremely useful ally in adopting the Win the Day mindset. Really practicing it, not just posting about it on social media.

Because that’s what we’re doing – we’re upgrading your daily routine to incorporate what works so you can deliver a better performance more often for the people who depend on you: your spouse, your kids, your parents, your work colleagues, your friends, and of course yourself.?

One last thing I want to leave you with comes from Gabby Reece, who you probably know as the volleyball player, fitness entrepreneur, and NY Times bestselling author. I asked Gabby where her motivation comes from to train day in, day out. She said:

“I've had enough athletic surgeries and things like that. I don't need to lose my health to covet it and to understand – besides my family and my friends – that it is truly the greatest asset that I have. And the best way I can show that I'm really grateful for my health is to take care of it.”

That always stood out to me and it’s something I think about often, because the real magic pill comes if we can create a process that makes us grateful for what we have before we lose it.

To help you adopt the attitude of real gratitude:

1. Commit to a daily gratitude practice.

2. Allow yourself to feel that gratitude so you can stimulate other positive thoughts.

3. Give thanks to the people you’ve been meaning to reach out to so you can bring more positive energy into the world.

4. When you wake up tomorrow, be grateful for another day that wasn’t promised – and make the most of it.

To you and your family, have an amazing Thanksgiving.

Onward and upward always,

James Whittaker

PS?— In case you missed it: There's Only One Answer (the Jim Stovall Story) .

#WinTheDay