At the start of this year I wrote about a year-long project I was doing, called My Year of Gratitude.
Every day I take a moment and add to a list things I’m grateful for.
5 months later, I just crossed item number 300 on my list. This is the 130th day of the year, so that is an average of 2.3 items per day.
The list right now, as I scroll through its many pages is already awesome. It’s filled with little moments. Things I might have forgotten. But as I scroll through, my brain lights up with the memory and why I was grateful.
There’s definitely something really awesome about seeing just how big this list is. It’s 9 pages of a Word document so far. The size of it makes it beyond debate.
There’s been days I’ve forgotten to add to my list. I don’t let that bring me down, I just resume the list when I remember. So far it’s not been a problem to just pick up and keep going.
I always work on it in the morning. I use it as a way of starting my day positively. Sometime I will take a deep breath, close my eyes and ask myself “What am I grateful for today?” and I wait.
Then something will pop up in my head, and I write it down.
I try to write down at least one, but usually some others will follow. I honestly give this only a couple of minutes. Originally I was going to give myself 5 minutes, but usually after I get a few items I call it good.
The real value is the size of the list today and the pleasure I get scrolling through it. It’s such a nice reminder in our crazy world about how many real positive things there are to be grateful for and sometimes it’s on us to remind ourselves of that.
