Have you seen the latest challenge on Face Book?
Not the ice bucket one. This one challenges you to list 3 things you’re grateful for each day for 3 days.
I like it.

I’ve discovered that’s what it’s all about.
Discovered it again. Just now.
Once Again.

It’s: Being Grateful.

Ever since I was was very young, I was always getting myself anxious over things. I worried in Kindergarten about wearing corduroy pants. What would everyone say? Or that the other kids (5 year olds) would make fun of the way I talked. Actually I was certain they’d make fun of me if I said the word “couch.” That’s what my family called the big thing we sat on to watch TV. I was afraid the other kids might call it a “sofa.”

Or take school exams. I believed if I worried a lot about an upcoming test then, when I took the exam, I’d end up doing pretty well.

You see, what ever I would agonize over usually didn’t happen. So I began to worry about everything because if I did, then it wouldn’t happen. In my mind, it was all very logical.

Trouble is I kept it up into my adulthood. I’d worry or get anxious about everything. And my life still turned out pretty well. So it did work!

Amazing how the brain works. I created a cause and effect. In my own mind.
Worry and good things follow.

Needless to say, this isn’t exactly healthy – mentally or physically. I do know that.
But it’s a hard habit to break. I even tried to convince myself I was just being prepared.

When I look back on things I had gotten anxious over I usually discovered 2 things:
1) Whatever I had agonized over turned out to be something not very important; or
2) Whatever I had agonized over turned out to be something that never happened.

I found this to be true over and over. I was just wasting my time.

Eventually I began to realize that showing gratitude for what I had is far more productive than worrying about everything.

It’s even liberating. I can think about happy thoughts instead of negative worried ones!

And a part of this realization I owe to reading one of my favorite authors, James Altucher.
I’ve mentioned him in previous posts.

Recently, he wrote about gratitude in one of his blog posts.

“Does It Really ‘Turn Out For The Best’ All The Time?”
http://www.jamesaltucher.com

Here is part of what he wrote:

“You can only be grateful for what is already abundant in your life.
I’m grateful for the computer I’m writing on because I’m abundant in computational power. I’m grateful for Claudia having a driver’s license because it’s how I can buy more food, making me have all the abundance in food I need.

Practicing gratitude means I’m practicing abundance. When I practice tennis, I get better at it. When I practice chess, I get better at it. If I practice, abundance, there will be more abundance in my life.
And since gratitude equals abundance, I just have to practice gratitude.”

And there it is. If I’m grateful, I’m grateful for something I already have…
If I want more of it, then I just need to be more grateful.

Simple as that!

Take the challenge.

Like Wilder says: “Today, I’m grateful for pigs!”

JT

PS. still don’t like corduroys.