Daily Gratitude Habit Is Easier Than You Think

I’m grateful for the amazing bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables this year!

A study by Dr. Michael McCollough, of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and Dr. Robert Emmons, of the University of California at Davis, in which several hundred people kept a daily log of things they were grateful for, concluded that “daily gratitude exercises resulted in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism and energy.”

At first, listing what you’re grateful for daily could appear to be yet another task you won’t get to. Tim Ferriss points out that “gratitude training” is the way to go, to make counting your blessings as routine as doing sit ups (or perhaps more routine for some!)

So here is a real-world example of how, if you break it down to the tiny things, you really can find things to be grateful for:

• I’m grateful for the nice evening light that caused me to open the curtains.
• I’m grateful my food is taking so long to cook, we settled on the couch to watch the DNC on tv.
• I’m grateful for my sense of humor that made me point out a man standing across the street, jokingly saying he was looking into the house.
• I’m grateful my friend had the presence of mind to shout out “I think he’s giving me a ticket!”
• I’m grateful that the parking person kindly let us off the hook. (It was a bizarre unobvious red zone in front of a stairway.)

In the September 2008 O Magazine, Oprah gives some good examples from her own gratitude journal:
“I am grateful for my breath and the recognition that I am here alive. Breathing. I am grateful for life. And for this time alone.”

OK a little deeper than my examples. But see how easy it is to find things to be grateful for?

Getting in the Gratitude Habit

What better use of Twitter, or status messages on your social networks, than to blast what you’re feeling grateful for? I know I know…there are better uses but it’s a good one!

A bunch of people have goals on SuperViva to feel more grateful or to start a gratitude journal.

The idea of seeing thousands of things I’m grateful for compiled does seem amazing. For now, I will at least continue counting my blessings to fall asleep. Sheep are so last millennium.

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What to Do This Summer? Flow…

Positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi points out in his book of the same title that often when you vacation or watch TV, it feels like you’re relaxing. But in reality those activities might not be as fulfilling as engaging in things that immerse you into the flow state.

With that in mind, hide your cell phone and clock and…

Get into the flow…

1. Clean out your magazines and make a collage. Cut, paste, don’t think about it.
2. Play an all night card game or go out dancing till the wee hours. Or both!
3. Mow the lawn
4. Try an activity that uses your hands - like hand building ceramics, kneading bread or pizza dough.
5. Go on a long bike ride with a picnic at the end.
6. Get really into your favorite sport, game, art, or musical activity without tracking time.
7. Play with toys, building blocks, or some other thing that kids usually do.
8. Cook something that takes a lot of stirring or time.



9. Spend a day with friends in a garage sale, sitting around, having fun.
10. Get into Letterboxing, the great worldwide hunt for boxes containing a book, not treasure.
11. Do whatever makes you get into that happy state where time passes!

Find more ideas of things to do on SuperViva!

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How Do You Want to Be Remembered - In 2 Words

In reading about the sudden passing of Tim Russert, who questioned the powerful and influential as moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” one thing in particular caught my eye.

Brian Williams called him “aggressively unfancy.”

Why do I love that?

It’s like the brand mantra, a company’s guiding statement, which Guy Kawasaki espouses. Only it can help you identify the kind of person you want to be.

I can imagine someone who is aggressively unfancy. Hal Riney, a multiple award winning ad man, seemed to often create aggressively unfancy (”folksy”) characters. Probably Ross Perot could be described the say way. And I’m guessing so too was Joan Kroc, philanthropic wife of McDonald’s founder.

Crafting Your Personal Mantra

To be honest I’m just making this up off the cuff, as a proposed experiment: An adverb plus an adjective seems like a format that will encompass your mantra. Two words may not be enough. But you get the idea:

• effortlessly delightful
• eternally caring
• purely good
• constantly living

Mine…something like: infectiously inspiring.

Do you have a mantra? What do you think and what is your process to find yours?

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7 Ways to Change Your Thinking and Reach Your Goals

Listing your dreams and goals is the easy part. But lots of big goals need a mindset change. And as you know, that’s the hard part. So….

1. Focus on What You Want - Not What You Don’t Want
   It rolls off the tongue to say “I want to stop smoking” or “stop procrastinating” (one of the most popular goals on SuperViva). Instead imagine and state your goal as something like “Always treat my body as a temple of perfect health.”
2. Enjoy the Process and Journey
   Instead of fixating on the end result of what you want - like being rich or thin, revel in the process.
3. Imagine The Result
   Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” When you set your goals, imagine yourself AFTER having achieved them. Pick a day in the future. Think about where you’ll be. What you’ll look and feel like. What and who is around you. What you’re enjoying or feeling at that very moment.

   This puts the “law of attraction” into motion!

4. Avoid Negative Hypnosis
   You know how when you diet all you can think about is that chocolate layer cake you CAN’T have? The more you fixate on what you can’t have the more you’ll want it. (Trust me, I did that recently!) For that matter the same applies for long time marriages, eh?

5. Perception is Projection. Project Good Things.
   You know when you’re in a really bad mood and everything goes wrong? You catch all the red lights. Everyone’s mean to you. You get a ticket. Life sucks. And you know when you’re happy and everyone loves you, the weather is beautiful, and life is great? Well, do the latter. Or at least own the bad things that happen if you choose to walk around in a bad mood. Then get over it stat!
6. Find a Role Model To Learn From
   Not only should you think of someone who embodies many qualities you would like to have, you should list out what you believe his or her values are. For example say you want to create a successful food product, in a sustainable way, and live in the country and in particularly you admire Ben and Jerry (of ice cream fame). You might list out all the qualities that would lead them to start this business, grow it while sticking to their principles, etc. Then think about ways you might need or want to change to be more like them.
7. Use Your Time Wisely and Take Action - Every couple of days or even every day look at where you are with what you’ve set out to accomplish this year. Do you need to step on it, perhaps sign up for classes, or make other plans? Tis true that time flies faster than we expect. Live each day not like it’s your last but like it’s a critical part of making this the best year of your life - which it is!

Thanks Albert Einstein for his sense of humor: “When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.”

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