MESSAGE #642 BE GREAT-FUL…

“Reflect Each Day On All You Have To Be Grateful For And You Will Receive More To Be Grateful For.”
-CHUCK DANES

Today’s message is especially dedicated to the great Bob Emmons at University of California – Davis.

I think that I’m a very happy person. I don’t need gifts for my birthday or special occasions. I don’t need to travel all the time. And I certainly don’t need a huge house or fancy car.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have my problems, and negative feelings come over me just as often as anyone. But long ago, I found a secret that changed my life and today I’m going to share that secret with you…

YOU HAVE TO BE GRATEFUL.

Being grateful is appreciating all that you have in your life, big and small, good and gad. Here’s what I want you to do: get a notebook and every day, write down five things that you are grateful for. If you write them down at night, before you go to bed, I feel that it is more effective.

You can be grateful for your gym membership or you can be grateful for your Uncle Jim.

When you’re grateful, you don’t need a special occasion to make you feel good – you feel good every day. Life seems to slow down and you start to live in the moment.

And for you athletes, I may be the first person to tell you that gratitude can help you in sports too.

My friend, Bob Emmons is the authority on gratitude in the emerging field of positive psychology. The first thing I ever asked Dr. Emmons, was how gratitude could be applied to sports. His answer was…

“Gratitude produces calm energy, so the grateful tennis player should make fewer unforced errors and have fewer poor mental decision throughout a match, among other positive benefits.”

Emmons also feels that gratitude could help solidarity and team unity.

So write down five things you are grateful for. Do it every day this week. Let me know your feedback.


Thanks for reading.