Why the Word “Gratitude” Means a Lot to Me

Originally published: September 30, 2020

Gratitude.

A word I have grown to love over this past year. Many of you know that I am a big fan of challenges. Stepping out of your comfort zone to confront fears and insecurities though challenges of the body and now mind. Ironman did that for me. The 100,000 pushup challenge did that for me. And now the “write 3 things down at the end of the day, everyday, for a year, that you are thankful for” challenge has done that for me.

I had just started my Graduate Assistantship at the University of Nebraska. I was working in Performance Nutrition and had been given an interesting task. I was to build a series of talks with interactive worksheets on the idea of Body Positivity to go through with sports teams at Nebraska. It’s a long story on how I wound up in this role so I will spare the details, but it certainly was not an area I was an expert in. I needed to learn myself. What does Body Positivity mean? How do I approach this in my own life? Am I happy with my body and the amazing things it can do, or do I become discouraged when thinking of my body? All of these questions were not things I have spent a lot of time thinking about.

In doing research, this word kept being repeated. Gratitude. Being thankful. There are so many studies that link a grateful mind and attitude to joy and happiness. But how can we learn to become more grateful? A lot of people journal. Writing down what happened that day, how you felt about it, etc. The one problem I had here is that bad days happen, and if you write your journal in a bad mood, the emotion that is left over upon completion of that entry is still, yup you guessed it, a bad mood. What if we put a filter on our reflection of our day? What would that do?

I decided that at the end of every day, for the next year, I would write down three tangible things that I was thankful for. No excuses. I had my little Team USA journal close by and figured that would work. That journal and a pen travelled to wherever I laid my head at night for the next year and now even loner. The last thing I would do before turning the lights off is write in it. There was purpose behind that. Finishing the day with a mindset focused on gratefulness actually helped me sleep better! It put my mind in a really good spot, regardless of how the day had gone.

Now you might be thinking, isn’t it hard to find three different things every day to write down? Did you not just repeat a lot of the same things? And surprisingly the answer to that is yes and no. The yes comes from the first week of doing it. It was hard to remember during the day what I could be thankful for. The no comes from every day after that. You see, at first, I couldn’t even remember what happened that day, let alone what I was thankful for out of it. But then a habit started to form. In sitting down in bed to write my three things I would start to rewind and run through the entire day again, this time with a filter of “What am I thankful for today?”. Suddenly things start popping up. Oh yes! I remember getting to eat breakfast with that friend of mine and the great conversation we had in it. I remember the joke my classmate told before class that I couldn’t get out of my head. I started remembering these things way easier.

This isn’t even the best part because after just a couple weeks of doing this every night I started to experience some of the biggest fruit I would of the year. I would be going about my day and things would be happening. Before doing this challenge, I would coast through whatever was on the schedule that day without thinking twice. But now? I was thinking, in the moments I knew I would be writing about later that night, how thankful I was. Right then and there. It would literally be happening, I would be having the conversation, finishing a milestone on a project, reaching out to a friend, and I knew that would make it to the journal that night. I can’t tell you how awesome a feeling this is.

To experience gratitude in the current moment of what you are experiencing. It takes living in the moment to a different level.

When you have the filter of thankfulness on, you tend to see the situation much differently. Honestly there would be times I would tear up in those moments. Overcome by emotion because of how much joy it brought. Later in the evening when I was about to go to sleep, I would smile and remember what had happened that day and what I was thankful for.

This is not to say I didn’t have bad days. I have been doing this in the middle of COVID-19 and being unemployed. Some days were HARD. But trust me when I say this, even in the hard days there is a lot to be thankful for. A LOT. And it is more than okay to have hard days. It happens to all of us. But what is your response to the hard? Is the reaction a “oh poor me, why did this have to happen to me?” one or a “what can I find in this to be thankful for and how can God use me in this situation?” one. This lesson has been drilled in my head more times in the last year than ever before. And it has changed the way I think. It is so freeing to go through a rewind of the day at the end of the day with the thankfulness filter turned on. It puts your brain in such a good spot. When is the last time you were up late stressed about a situation? I would be willing to bet it was recently. Just being honest. This is not a solution to all your problems, but for me, putting the lens of thankfulness over my day and physically writing it down has made me spend far fewer nights worrying about things outside of my control. I fall asleep faster and happier and with less running through the narrow walls of my noggin.

I want you to put me to the test too! On the post you clicked to get to this blog I want you to comment with a specific date in the last year. Any date all the way back to August 28th, 2019 and I will respond with one of the things I wrote down that day. You can bet this is a habit I will keep doing for a long time to come. It has made me appreciate the small things in life way more. I know you have heard the phrase “be where your feet are” or “live in the moment” or even just “be present” all the time. But what are you actually doing to make sure that is the case? Just saying those words won’t do it.

Ask yourself tonight “What am I thankful for?”. Make yourself write down three things, just three! That’s not a lot! Three total sentences! Write down three things, even just for a week, in a journal before bed, that you are thankful for and I promise you it will start changing the way you think. I have written “I’m thankful for…” nearly 1,100 times in the last year and that alone probably helped me be more grateful. Now pair that with specific things to you from that day? CHEAT CODE MAN. For real.

Thanks for reading this. Honestly, I am so thankful for you taking the time to read this. These blogs have become an awesome spot to do exactly what this post is about, reflect on the things I am grateful for. And if it impacts one person in any sort of positive way to make a change in their life for the better? Pshhh. What else am I supposed to do here? That’s it. I love you. Genuinely. I am grateful for you. I promise. I am thankful for you. (You guessed it. Writing this and you reading it will be in the journal tonight.)