My Plan for Developing and Maintaining a Perspective of Gratitude

The promise I made myself for this year is that I would approach everything thing from the perspective of joy. I do plan to keep this as my 2024 mantra, but as you well know "everything" or a promise of "always" is a sure recipe for not meeting a goal. So, I tried to simplify this by reminding myself of the people I admire, my faith, the biographies I've read, the dozens of touching Instagram posts that inspired me and the sweet gaze of my loyal dogs.

I started this shift towards gratitude by shifting they way I looked at how I was heading into situations. Instead of saying "I have to" I tried to catch myself and say "I get to". Instead of assuming the worst from that return call I needed to make I instead looked forward to solving a problem. Instead of dreading the confrontation I looked to the excitement of debate. Well, sometimes this did work. And as we agreed before, you can't expect things to go the way you planned it all the time and this planning doesn't always keep a situation from just turning out poorly. I needed to come up with a better plan to develop and maintain my gratitude. So, I studied on.

It seems I'm drawn to subjects where even in the face of challenge and hardship that the main character trait that comes out is gratitude. And from this gratitude these characters build a level of hope and confidence that is far stronger than any man or woman can tear down. While I never want to compare myself to others, I realize that this admiration is more a commitment to study and observe the habits that others embrace to maintain theses admirable characters traits. In everyday life, I most often take notice when something seems off in a situation. Such as, why a situation is so tense or why does that statement seems so filled with resentment. When I compare this to the interactions where both parties feel heard, their convictions are strong, confident and articulate I took the few tidbits I could glean from these observations and tried to implement small changes. I realized that as much as I observed, read and practiced that in the moment I just don't have full control of the outcome of my interactions.

So now, with setting my intentions on heading into 2024 with joy, and gratitude being the driving force to get me there, I've developed a new way for me to maintain my gratitude. While it may seem simple, I have found it is one of the most challenging things I have tasked myself with. Here it is. I will be grateful for the terrible, awful, embarrassing and anguishing interactions that life throws at me. I will take the time to reflect on those moments where I feel misunderstood, inconsequential, straight up wrong, cheated, hurt, or hopeless. I will be thankful for that person who yelled at me, for that person who told me I was wrong, for that Instagram post that was embarrassing and so on.

Now I'm not suggesting to look back upon your life and take note of each of these past events. I'm sure you have already been told how those experiences make you the person you are today. What I am attempting is to be grateful in the moment, or shortly there after. Reverse the course of the confusion, anger, or embarrassed or hurt feelings and be grateful for it. Be grateful for the confusion because it will lead you to seeking answers. Be grateful for the anger because it will lead to making better decisions in the future. Be grateful for the feelings stirred in you because they will give you the opportunity to see if you are putting yourself in front of people who either don't value you or if you need to change yourself. I am committed to not taking too long to look upon the lessons life has given me. This year is going to be so amazing with the good, the bad and the ugly. Bring it on! And if you wouldn't mind, please say a prayer for me! I'd be happy to reciprocate.