How to Build an Attitude of Gratitude!

Welcome back and thank you for joining me here again. I want to thank everybody for joining me last week and for all the great comments. I really appreciate it as things get up to speed.

This week, it's Thanksgiving week, and we're going to talk about gratitude. I have developed a model for personal transformation that I'm gonna be rolling out over the next several blog posts, and it starts with building a foundation of gratitude. Without gratitude in your life, it really sucks. So, why not start from a place of feeling really good, and feeling really grateful for what you have?

Attitude of Gratitude

First, let's spend some time talking about Zig Ziglar because Zig Ziglar was one of the greatest sales and motivational speakers of all time. Zig was famous for talking about having an ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE; i.e. always coming from a place of gratitude. In fact, he said "Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you'll have even more to express gratitude for." And why not? We should be thankful for everything we have.

There is a video at the end of this post of Zig talking about a woman that came to him complaining about her job. He proceeded to walk her through all the things that she should be thankful about in her job. For example, are you grateful that they give you a paycheck? Well yes I am. Are you grateful that you work inside and not outside? Well yes I am. And by the time he got done taking her through all the things that he could think of that she should be grateful for about her job, there were 22 things. But then here's the next amazing part. Zig said, "Okay, I want you to go home and everyday I want you to write down what you're thankful for in your job before you go into work." So the woman did that, and a couple months later Zig saw her and he said "Hey, how's that job going?" And she said "You won't believe how those people at my job have changed." And he just laughed because he knew that nobody at the office had changed, it was her that had changed by doing a daily practice of gratitude.

I do that myself. Here's a link to the app I use called Day One, a digital diary. The first thing I do every day is I open up Day One, and I start noting down what am I grateful for that day. Just being alive is one of the things I can write up-front every day. But there's always something special about each day that I'm grateful for. Starting off my day with that practice of gratefulness and gratitude sets the tone for the day and makes it a wonderful day. So, I'd encourage you to do the same.

Zig Zigler also said this, "People often say motivation doesn't last." And then he went onto say, "Neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily." If you are grateful every day for the things that you have, your life's just going to work a lot better.

So, now please get out a pen and paper. The reason I'm asking you to get out a pen and paper is that I want you to write down some things that you're thankful for this year. I'm gonna give you a couple examples from my own life.

What am I grateful for this year?

What I'm grateful for this year...
This past year, I'm very grateful that I was able to start my own business. It's been wonderful in many, many ways. I've been blessed this year with good income and a lot of extra time to do some things I've put off for some time. For example, starting off the year, I went to San Francisco with my family, and we enjoyed our time there meeting up with old friends because we used to live out the Bay Area.

After some time off, I got my first consulting assignment underway with Wells Fargo while I was out in the Bay Area.

We've also been able to travel more this year. For Spring Break, we went to Los Angeles. We went to a Clippers game, which was really a lot of fun. Then we went down to San Diego, and Alex and I were able to do Segways for the first time together. That was fantastic.

We've also went to Saint Louis in May, and we're gonna go again for Thanksgiving, which I think is the first time in I don't know how many years that I've been able to see my family twice in one year.

Also, we're going to see Carmina's side of the family in the Philippines for Christmas and New Year's.

This year also, I was able to purchase another boat. I got a little 14 foot Weta Trimaran, and I took that on the Texas 200.  I was able to take a week off and sail up the Texas Coast. It was probably some of the best sailing of my life. I really had a great time!

I also have a lot of gratitude for just having a beautiful home, having a great home office, having peaceful places on our property to hang out and just enjoy life, including our courtyard on the side of our house, which is a place we spend a lot of time in.

But what matters most in life, and what I'm most grateful for is my family. This year, we celebrated Carmina's birthday, and we had a great Mother's Day meal together with Alex.

I'm also thankful for my boys, both Alex and Jack. This year, Alex turned 14. He's growing up to be a great, great young man. And we've been able to spend a lot of time together, and play golf this year. He's finally got me back into the game although I need to improve my game a bit because he's beating the pants off me.

I'm also grateful this year to have been part of a couple of Masterminds. In one of the Masterminds, we had three long weekend retreats where I really grew a lot as a person. Along the way, I stumbled across the direction to peace, love, and change.

But seriously, in the last month, what's been great is getting going on putting this blog together and starting to share my thoughts and my voice with the world.

What are you grateful for this past year?

So, I want to invite you this week to think about what you're grateful for this year. And also again, I want to invite you to a call that my coach, Michelle Humphrey, is having on Thanksgiving morning. Here are the details:

INVITATION to join me and my coach , Michelle Humphrey, on her annual Thanksgiving Day gratitude call. What are you grateful for this year?

Title: Thanksgiving Gratitude Call
Date & Time: Thursday, November 23rd at 8:00 AM Pacific

Attend by Phone:
Guest pin code: 030195#
Primary dial in number: (425) 440-5010
Secondary dial in number: (929) 223-3001
Full list of dial in Numbers:
http://InstantTeleseminar.com/ Local/?eventid=103094679

We'll get on the phone and talk about what we're grateful for this year. So, prep up for that call, come join us, hear what other people have to say, and share some of what you're grateful for. It's a great time of the year to reflect and be grateful on all that's happened over the year.

Finally, if you're enjoying this post, and you like what I'm talking about, please share with other people. Post a link to this blog up on your Facebook page, and get the word out that I'm starting to share some really exciting stuff in the coming weeks. We're going to cover my formula for personal transformation  and prepare for next year by doing some goal setting and some visioning around what you want to create going forward in your life.

I look forward to seeing you next week. Thanks again for being here.