The Good That’s Already There
A little note before you dive in….
Originally published in The Wednesday Diaries.
These words first appeared in my weekly newsletter, The Wednesday Diaries, a place where I share stories from everyday life, lessons I'm learning, books I'm loving, and encouragement for the week ahead.
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In July, my mom asked my sisters and I if we wanted to participate in a gratitude challenge for the entire month. Every day we were to send five things we were grateful for.
I jumped at the opportunity. I'd always heard about the benefits of practicing gratitude, and my brother, Tustin, has been one of its biggest advocates. For the past few years, he's started each morning by writing down what he's grateful for, and he's told me it's made a huge difference in both his personal life and his business.
I love the idea of practicing gratitude. But if I'm honest, it's one of those things I always meant to do without ever making it a habit.
One thing I learned pretty quickly was that the accountability of doing this challenge with other people made all the difference. Not only did it help me stay consistent, but I also looked forward to seeing what everyone else was grateful for each day.
At first, I kept coming up with the same things.
“I’m grateful for Jason…”
“I’m grateful for my job…”
"I'm grateful for my family…”
Then there were days when I struggled to come up with five things because it felt like I'd barely survived the chaos of the day. Those were the days I had to get creative.
It took less than a week before I could feel the shift. What surprised me most wasn't that my circumstances changed, it was that my attention did. It caused me to really slow down and take a look at everything around me instead of rushing through my day.
An encouraging text message from a friend, my morning coffee, the book on my kindle, laughs with my coworkers, they all became moments that made my list. It caused me to dig deeper and really think about WHY I was grateful for the things I shared.
No day is perfect, and long, hard days are inevitable. Doing the challenge showed me that there is still good in every hard day.
I think gratitude is less about pretending everything is perfect and more about training our eyes to see the good that's already there.
So here's my question for you:
What's one thing you're grateful for today?
I hope you'll take a moment to really think about it, and you might be surprised by what comes to mind.
Your friend,
Jessalyn