It’s hard for many of us to be grateful. Every time we turn on the TV, open up a magazine, or even walk outside of our door, we see something that we want. We see that commercial for the new Iphone, and we want it. We see the ad in a magazine for an indoor Jacuzzi with high-powered massaging jets, and we want that. We walk outside our house and see a brand new BMW sitting across the street, and we want that.

Wanting more from your life is normal. But, I encourage you to stop focusing so much of your time on what you don’t have. The things that you want will come with time. Be patient positive thinker because nothing happens over night. And as you practice patience, you should try to make a habit out of being thankful for what you do have.

Everyone has something to be thankful for, even if it’s for the mere fact that you’re alive today. Some people didn’t get that, but you did. And while being thankful for your life is a big thing to be thankful for, you also need to find small things to be thankful for, because from my experience, when the big things go it makes us feel pretty bad…

If you loose a dollar, you may get upset momentarily, but the discomfort you feel will pas fairly quickly because it’s not that much money. On the other hand, losing a hundred dollars is going to hurt you a lot more than loosing that dollar will for the mere fact that a $100 is significantly more money than a dollar is…

That’s why we still need to have something to be thankful for even when the big things leave us because having those small things in mind will allow us to still keep a positive attitude in the midst of loss. So if you find small things to be thankful for in addition to the big things that you have then you’ll still have a way to practice thankfulness even if you don’t have the big things in your life that you desire.

Positive thinker, everyday you should make a point of waking up and acknowledging what you are grateful. If it’s going to be hard for you to remember to do this, then I recommend writing down a list of the things that you are grateful for. And once you have taken the time to write down those things that you are appreciative of (big, small, and everything that falls in the middle) then place that list somewhere that you’re bound to see it…

If the first thing that you do when you wake up is reach for your phone then place that piece of paper on top of your phone before you go to bed so that when you wake up and reach for your phone you’ll also grab your list. If that doesn’t work, tape it on your refrigerator or on your favorite box of cereal so that when you go to eat your breakfast you’ll also have a chance to say what you’re thankful for. It doesn’t matter if that list is on your bathroom door or on your mirror or on the corner of your TV, just find a place to put your list that allows you to see what you’re thankful for before you leave your house.

And it may not seem like it, but it’s important that you do this before you leave your house. Once you walk out of your door to go to work or to run errands it’s much more likely that you’ll forget to do it later on. We get wrapped up in our day to day rituals and it’s hard enough to remember to do the things that we do on a normal basis, especially if we run into something stressful. A bad day at work or an indignant driver on the road my cause you so much stress that you may forget to acknowledge what you’re thankful for when you get home for the day, so practice your thankfulness in the morning before the potential stress of the day has a chance to set in. Not to mention, if you start off your day on a positive note, you’re much more likely to keep that positivity going throughout the rest of your day. When you’re in a bad mood, it’s easier to only focus on the bad things that happen in your life, but if you’re in a good mood because you decided to wake up thankful for what you do have, then that positive attitude may expand your frame of mind just wide enough to notice the other good things that occur in your life throughout the day.

When you start noticing the good things that you have in your life then you just may stop focusing on the bad things so much. You see, if you spend all of your time being appreciative of the things that you do have then you won’t have any time to complain about the things that you don’t have. And the funny thing about life is that when you start to become grateful for the good things in your life, you’ll also start to see that you’ll enjoy life a whole lot more. If you don’t believe me then try it, and let me know how it works for you!