141: Developing an Attitude of Gratitude

On a daily basis, we deal with stress and anger. But it’s how we handle stress that determines our success in this life. The more we stress about life, the more we’ll fall into the temptation to become angry and disappointed with what life offers. Before we can understand what solutions we have in dealing with the daily stresses of life, we first must understand what causes stress.

In today’s podcast episode I want to give you 5 secrets to developing an attitude of gratitude that will help you get rid of stress and find the peace you’re looking for. Life is hard and the stress life brings into our lives seem to outweigh the positivity we desire in our daily lives. So how do we develop an attitude of gratitude?

Life happens and there’s not much we can do to ease the problems and stress that arise in our lives. But, it’s how we handle these moments of life that determines our mindset and what our outlook on life looks like. Psalm [34:19] King James Version (NKJV); Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

1. Worry about Nothing.

In the book of Philippians 4:6 we find Paul writing, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

It’s easy to worry. When life gets tough and we’re not sure what the outcome will be, we worry. Worry borrows from the future, something that might not happen. It’s being afraid of something that happened that you couldn’t control or something that might never happen.

[Tweet “Worry borrows from the future, something that might not happen”]

The definition of worry is to choke or strangle.

Worry takes what’s left of your imagination and amps it up to allow fear and stress to consume our thought life. Worry is always thinking outside of the moment where we are borrowing from the future instead of in the NOW.

As the wise Jedi Master, Yoda says, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate, Hate leads to suffering.” Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday – but remembering that when tomorrow arrives, it is God who brought you through.

TAKEAWAY: Live ONE DAY at a time! Live for today!

2. Be content with everything.

We like to compete with the Jones’. We look at what people have in their grocery cart and wish we could have that lobster for dinner too, and what’s worse, they may not look like they can afford that lobster.

We covet and spend outside our means, just so we can save face with our friends. Our we tell stories that try to eclipse someone else’s situation. We try hard to be like everyone and everyone like us, and one up everyone.

It’s human nature. We. feel the need that something will make us happy.

If you expect it to always be sunny and it rains, you lose faith and sight of what peace can look and feel like. Oh man! God, why isn’t it sunny! I thought you wanted the best for my life and this is happening! Why?!

[Tweet “If you expect it to always be sunny and it rains, you lose faith and sight of what peace can look and feel like”]

Philippians [4:12];“I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”

You cannot fall into the trap of wanting or craving more than what you have because you’ll become stressed. Maybe it’s time to slow it down and find peace.

3. Set realistic goals.

I’ve learned that goal setting is a significant way to force your mind to focus on what’s important rather than on your current circumstances. It’s like a fighter who focuses on winning the battle and doing his best to succeed than looking at the size of the man in front of him.

There are a ton of books out there dealing with goal setting, I won’t get into them here. But one thing is certain when you think forward and stop thinking about your current predicaments, you’ll find your stress levels decline. King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 16:9; We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it.

So many people fail at New Year‘s Resolutions because they don’t make a cognitive decision on how to implement their goals. Michael Hyatt wrote a book called, “Your Best Year Ever.” In this book, he talks about the right way and the wrong way to set yearly goals. His template has proven to me that it’s easier than you think to set goals and see them succeed.

It’s called the SMARTER template.

• Specific– The goal must be specific. “I will read 12 books this year.”
• Measurable– The goal must be measurable… “I will read 12 books this year.”
• Actionable– The goal must be actionable… “I will read 12 books this year by reading every day beginning January 1.”
• Risky– The goal must be risky. Maybe you should push to read 20 books?
• Time-bound– The goal must have an end date. “I will read 12 books by December 31 by reading every day beginning January 1.”
• Exciting– The goal must be exciting. If you’re not excited about the goal, have an exciting reward for when you accomplish that goal.
• Relevant– The goal must be relevant to where you are in your life.

If you do this, you’ll find it harder to focus on the here and now, and focus on what you can accomplish this year.

4. Turn off the garbage.

We go through difficulty after difficulty but we become so convinced of it because of what we listen to and allow into our spirit. Should we not spend more time in the Word of God instead of what the news says or what friends of Facebook say?

It’s all gloom, despair, and agony on me!

It’s time to change our mindset, go to God in prayer, read the Word of God, and allow godliness to flood your hearts and mind.

We need to develop a new filter in our lives to keep the world’s pollution from affecting our lives. It’s one thing to pray, but we also need to get rid of the things that pollute the mind. Just turn on the news or social media. These are all highly toxic! They affect the mind, soul, and heart. The nightly news will tell you that the world will end tomorrow! Friends on Facebook pick sides and will defend it to the death.

The Bible says, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

It is time to dump the toxic junk from our lives and focus on developing an attitude of gratitude.

5. Journal your way to a thankful heart.

My life shapes by my thoughts. How we think is how we’ll act but writing our thoughts gives us something new to think about. I go out of my way to journal and plan my way out of life‘s stressors. I don’t want a problem without finding a solution to fix that said problem.

It’s easy to worry about tomorrow, however, to live life for today takes thought and dedication. Therefore I’ve become a big fan of journaling. In fact, I’m releasing a new journal on the market called,“Thinking Forward: Developing an attitude of Gratitude.”

The whole goal of this journal is to help people think about the positive aspects of their day, document their wins, lessons learned, things read, and writing a positive affirmation paragraph.

When we think positive in our daily life, the more we will focus on the good things life has to offer. So, I’ve created a journal that asks 9 questions to help you discover what is good and positive and to help you dig down deep and find what it is you’re grateful for.

[Tweet “When we think positive in our daily life, the more we will focus on the good things life has to offer.”]

I will release this journal on January 29 and will give you the tools you need to develop a mindset of gratefulness. Whether you’re journaling for personal reasons or professional reasons, this journal will help you stay focused on what’s important by helping you gain the results you want out of life.

THIS JOURNAL INCLUDES:

• 90 days of journaling pages.
• DAILY INDEX to help you easily find the day or month you’re looking for.
• HELP YOU SLOW DOWN so you can process your day and think through your biggest wins and discoveries.
• HELP YOU FIND WHAT YOU’RE MOST GRATEFUL FOR by asking you questions to connect with yourself on an emotional level and by building a daily habit of affirmation.
• HELP YOU RECONNECT WITH YOUR DAILY GOALS.
• BECOME CONSISTENT with a daily journaling habit by answering 9 carefully selected questions to focus on your biggest wins and leave a legacy for future generations.

I break this journal up into THREE main sections:

1. THINKING ABOUT TODAY – to help you connect with your biggest wins.
2. AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE – to help you dig down deep and pull up something you’re grateful for and by writing some form of positive affirmation.
3. THINKING ABOUT TOMORROW – to reconnect with your daily goals and make achieving them a habit. You can use this section to plan out your next day so you can get more done with a smile on your face.

We design this journal by giving you a template to stay focused, get your ideas, goals, and thoughts written in one place. Taking a moment to reflect on each day by taking lessons learned will help you apply those wins to tomorrow by helping you take your life to the next level.

You are meant for greatness. You are meant to be happy and positive. It is time to start thinking forward, stop looking back at negativity, and begin thinking about your life positively by developing a daily habit of affirmation.