Being more grateful is something that changed my life, and I really want you to see all of the things happening in your life in this very moment that you have reason to be grateful for.

You’ve heard of the expression “taking things for granted” haven’t you? Well every single day in everything we do we take the subtleties of our life for granted. How we have the power to stand on our own two feet. That we have loved ones to call. That we have running water in our homes and food in our pantry. Gratitude doesn’t always need to be a complex reflection on your blessings, it can also be a simple mindfulness of what is right there in front of you.

So let’s do it right now, in this very moment. What is one thing you’re grateful for? Again, just something that is true for you as it is, that doesn’t necessarily get the credit it deserves. When you’ve identified that thing, I want you to think about what you life would look like if you didn’t have it. If you’re grateful for the feeling of sunshine, what would a completely dark world be like? If you’re grateful for you brother or sister’s health, what would your life be like without that?

The reality is, things very well could be different, and there’s a lot to be grateful for right now as you are, and I encourage you to acknowledge it.

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When I began discovering the power of appreciation I was overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start. The idea of it made sense but I didn’t know the actual, tangible ways to incorporate it into my life. If gratitude is a mindset, which by nature is a very broad perspective toward something, then how do you integrate a new one in a real way? That’s where a practice of taking consistent action comes in, and I want to share a few, real practices I’ve implemented to add gratitude to my life. 

First is to say thank you twice a day. Only twice a day. First thing you do when you wake up and the last thing you do before you go to bed. This is something I learned from David Meltzer. At one point I changed the title of the wake up alarm on my phone to say “Thank You” as a reminder.

Second is through journaling. Every day as part of my morning routine I sit down at my desk and write down 3 things I’m grateful for. This is something I learned from Mike Sherbakov. Again, starting your day with gratitude primes you to see opportunities to be grateful for the rest of the day.

And last, is to set a reminder randomly in the day. At 11:11 am every day I have a phone alarm that goes off, and it’s titled “Humble, grateful, dependable.” This is a tip I learned from Brendon Burchard. When it goes off I take a moment to be mindful of those 3 qualities that I hold as core principles, and to connect with them in a small way.

If you noticed, all 3 of those examples require only 30 seconds of work up front to change your environment and help trigger you to be grateful.

This might show how dorky I am, but my favorite Holiday is Thanksgiving. It’s not because I have an excuse to load up on a bunch of food for a day, it’s because for once we are all encouraged to be mindful of the blessings we have. They truly are too many to count, and in spirit of the Thanksgiving Holiday I want to focus on one of the most powerful tools we have as humans - gratitude - and how we can harness it to bring immense benefits to our lives.

You’ve probably heard the expression “attitude of gratitude” before. Well being grateful for the circumstances around you is simply a mindset and a choice. When you start choosing to see the reasons you should be grateful, you’ll notice more and more of them start revealing themselves. This is because a part of your brain called the Reticular Activating System looks for patterns, and if you focus in on gratitude the Reticular Activating System will work to find more examples of it in the things around you. Eventually, the RAS will become so trained to look for these things that you will just perceive them with more gratitude without any effortful thought.

But this process takes a little bit of time, and needs to be trained by your taking action. So I have a challenge for you. Tell one person from your past - an educator, coach, relative, or friend, who really helped you an important way - tell them that you appreciate the role they played in your life. Your energy will absolutely change theirs, and will begin a cascade of positive change.

You’d be surprised how far one random act of kindness, one expression of gratitude can travel, and I challenge you to give it a try!

Something beautiful about our lives and world is that we have the freedom of choice. However with choice comes multiple options to select from, and you don't know the full potential and consequences from certain decisions until they’ve been made. If we want to get better at life, we need to get good at receiving feedback so that we can have more information to make a better decision next time. When it comes to getting good feedback here are a few rules of thumb.

First, don’t ask one person about everything, ask many people about one specific thing. The more narrow and targeted the feedback is the better, because it controls for the circumstances different people are coming from and keep things from getting too complicated. For example if you wrote an article, don’t ask one person “Hey what’d you think?”, instead ask a few different people “What do you think is the core message in this article, and was that clear to you?”

Also, pose questions in a way that are unbiased. There are different ways you can present a question that prompts people to validate a certain thought instead of reflect upon a certain thought. For example, and using the article example again, instead of asking someone “Do you think my article is too long?” you can ask “What do you think about the length of the article?” That way they aren’t primed in any way to respond and you get their genuine feedback, which will ultimately be more useful. 

There’s definitely an art to getting good feedback, and these are a few ideas to keep in mind as you go about asking others about their thoughts on different decisions you’ve made.

This thought was inspired by something I heard Jay Shetty say, and it’s something that many of the most successful people in the world can relate to. No matter what you accomplish or how great your achievements are, “be humbled by your dreams”. 

Your dreams are meant to serve you in a few ways. The first is with motivation, knowing that you have a vision for who you want to be and being dedicated to realizing it. When you have a big dream then you always have something to chase, always something to push you forward, which will be necessary when the road gets bumpy.

Your dreams also serve you in a way that is directly related to today’s quote, and being humbled. When the vision for your life is so profound, so far-reaching and ambitious, then no matter what you do it’ll always pale in comparison to how you want things to be. 

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t appreciate or recognize your intermediate accomplishments, but it does mean that you shouldn’t over value them at the expense of your potential. The most successful people in the world don’t need to prove their wealth or success to others because they don’t compare their wealth and success to others. They compare it to their own dreams, and in recognition of how they are only a fraction of the way there, they find no need to flaunt their accomplishments.

So I encourage you, dream fearlessly big. And take a stand for what you believe in, so that you can be humbled by the size of your future.

The way I see it, personal development is fundamental to our lives. Given that we live in a constantly changing world we need to be dynamic as individuals to best exist within it, and that’s where our self growth comes in to help us meet those demands. However, I don’t think it stops there, I think the development and growth we seek to experience is meant to serve more than just ourselves. I firmly believe that you cannot give what you don’t have, and personal development is just preparation to be able to contribute toward the lives of others.

Having said that, I’d like to introduce you to For Purpose. I have been developing a social impact platform that is designed to help people make a difference in the world. I truly believe that we all have something unique to offer but it can be overwhelming knowing where to get started. And sometimes we feel like what we have to offer doesn’t actually make a difference. Well I’m here to tell you, I think that’s bullshit. Your compassion, your creativity, your daily choices, and your dollar all make a difference, and we’re building a platform that makes it more doable than ever to live a life in service of others.

I had a major realization when I spoke with Commander Mark Divine. We talked about how a thought is required for any external action to be taken, but I didn’t realize how thoughts are reflected and integrated internally by the subconscious. There’s a bidirectional effect to every thought we have that first interacts with our external environment, but also interfaces with our internal environment. 

Every thought takes two paths. One is how the thought turns into decisions and ultimately actions in your external world, and the other is how it validates or violates beliefs you have in your internal world. Beyond that, what I found interesting is how other people can influence your thoughts and play a role in this entire cascade. This is just another reminder to be really intentional about what you’re exposing yourself to, what you tolerate in your life, because you never know how it might be subconsciously influencing you.

The dictionary definition of “potential” is “the latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness.” Amazingly, we have this ability in life to think about how things can be and even change the way that things are to make progress toward a new future. We know and feel that we are capable of more, that’s us acknowledging our potential, but it’s difficult to quantify what “more” means.  For that reason I want to broaden and elaborate on this definition.

When it comes to these latent qualities or abilities inherent to your potential, there is no limit to the amount of things you can access. Whether it’s through books, podcasts, life experience, shared lessons, or intuition you have access to every tool ever conceived. That’s a lot of options and an infinite amount of future states that we can create, an infinite potential, but in order to exercise your potential you need to harness it and steer it in the right direction. And that right direction is your truth.

In order to gain clarity on your truth you need to be vulnerable, you need to be honest, you need to be open-minded, and you need to be empathetic to yourself and others. This way you can be more clear about how you're meant to grow, and in what areas you need to grow, which will guide you on what qualities, abilities, and possibilities you need to access to pursue that truth. Going back to the original definition, those are the qualities that are most useful. Those are the qualities that lead to future success. And your willingness to receive guidance will help you to pursue your unique potential.