One of the biggest messages I harp on when training leaders is that their people are miserable when they feel they have no control over their own existence. Hmmmm … I’ve n
oticed a LOT of miserable people lately. I notice them in traffic, in the supermarket, at the bank, even at my local recreation center!
WHAT is going on??!
If you listen to the news, the answer to that question is “Nothing good!” In fact, they’d have us all believe that danger, doom and destruction lurk around every corner. We recoil in fear, cling to our crappy existence and watch for signs and symptoms of more horrors and worries to come.
That’s enough to ruin anyone’s day.
What if …
- we are more fortunate than generations before us?
- we can instantly know what all the people we care about are up to and that they are okay?
- we can act on an urgent “MUST DO” thought the moment it pops into our heads?
- we have no need to remember our times tables drills but can fill our wrinkled gray matter with ideas that may actually change the world?
- we can, without crazy advertising budgets, literary agents and a PR committee, broadcast those brilliant, life changing thoughts to whoever will soak them up?
- we have far more than the news, government or advertising executives would have us believe?
Did you know that just 3 weeks of writing these kind of items in a gratitude journal can lift our mood, boost our immune system, energize us and make us more desirable to be around for 6 months?
WOW!
That, my friends, is better than Vitamin D, St. John’s Wort and a perfect commute put together! If nothing else, gratitude gives us back control over something truly powerful that no one can take away from us – our heart and soul. If you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder Syndrome, or just generally find this time of year cold, damp, dark and dreary, check out this video from Marie Forleo! Grab a journal and give it a try. Hey, it’s cheaper than therapy … or road rage, and just might work! Let me know below the Frank Sinatra clip at the very, very bottom, how focusing on gratitude works out for you!
PS – Need help getting started? George and Ira Gershwin’s song “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” may be about love, but it will get you in the right frame of mind to look for and focus on the things that make you smile. When you do, they really CAN’T take that away from you! Enjoy: