I think, often during January, the beginning of the new year, it is easy for us to get caught up in the DOING, and forget to BE. I know that I often get busy planning for the year and DOING my goals All in all, January can end up including a lot of DOING and busyness for many people.

Instead of being so focused on the DOING, practice BEING grateful first. Gratefulness is the fertile field in which the seeds of success are planted. Take a small step toward being grateful today. With each small step, progress is made, it becomes a habit, and from there we can build on that habit. As with all personal growth, the habit is more important than the result. The thing is, the habit is still helping us grow, even though we can't see the results right away.

Gratefulness is so much more than simply giving thanks at a meal, or telling that special someone how much they mean to us. Gratefulness sets the stage for the creation of your life. When you are feeling grateful, your negative emotions are lowered automatically. It is impossible to feel grateful and stressed at the same time. Try it, you'll see!

The way that gratefulness sets the stage for creating the life I really want is as follows: First, when I am grateful, I am focused on what I have, and what I am focused on gets bigger. Focusing on being grateful for what I have is so much more effective than focusing on, or complaining about what I don't have, because whatever I focus on I get more of. Once I feel grateful for what I already have, it is a short leap to shift that feeling into being grateful for what I desire to have in my life. Gratefulness is the fertile field for creating the life you want using the BE-DO-HAVE model, which we will discuss in upcoming newsletters.

For now, just BE grateful, you will find that your life will run more smoothly, your stress level will go down, and people will like being around you even more.

GRATEFULNESS TOOL:

Celebration and gratefulness are closely related entities and can both be used together to create a Power Tool to bring the feeling of gratefulness into your heart.

A really simple tool to get the gratefulness juices flowing is to journal 5 things that you are grateful for and 5 accomplishments that you want to celebrate at the end of each day. Nothing is too small for either list! Celebrate that you got out of bed on-time, or that you answered the phone in one ring while sitting at your desk today. You can be grateful for your cat or your Mom, or your car which got you to work on-time.

Once again, the habit is more important than the result.

Get in the habit of winning, celebrating and being grateful. As you do, you build a solid foundation of success, on which you can build the skyscraper of your life.

I am grateful for you and the way that you touch the lives of others!