November 23, 2020
Gratitude keeps us focused on the present and makes us happy. -Max Lucado
Have you ever played Tic Tac Toe or Connect Four? If so, have you noticed that when you focus on your next move and fail to look at what your partner is doing, you always lose?
Your perspective becomes so inward and narrow that you forget to look up.
A few years back, when I was at the beginning of my cancer journey, I was nudged to look up and not get self-consumed. When I learned how to stop being consumed by “me,” I thought about my life and realized it’s not about me!! Nobody will really remember anything about me except the imprint I choose to make on them. This is true for all of us.
Naturally, we are all wired to be selfish—to think, “What about me?” To change that, I chose to look outward—to be intentional about noticing the good, to recognize all the blessings smothering me. I had to choose this mindset.
I have been told that both you and I will see around 25,000 images in a day, that our reticular activation system are the eyes of our brain. We can choose to condition our eyes (like athletes who watch tape after tape of another team to see where the opportunities are) to see the blessings in our lives and look for opportunities to be a blessing to others.
Being intentionally grateful shapes our perspective in a powerful way. We condition our eyes to see the good because that’s what we’re looking for. We train our minds to know that each day good things will happen to us and good things will happen through us. Big and small, we notice them.
If you choose to purposefully train your mind to embrace this way of thinking it will place a smile in your heart and guide you to naturally shape your thoughts to notice the good around you, anticipate you will find it, and develop a positive mental attitude.
It does not make you naïve or soft; it simply means you are choosing to shift your perspective and focus. When you do, you’ll bring enormous blessings to others and abundance and genuine fulfillment to your world too.
When I started counting my blessings my whole life turned around. – Willie Nelson