Personal Insights Blog #1 – Have an Attitude of Gratitude

By dougnau on Apr 3, 2009 in Gratitude, Positive Thinking

Background to the Personal Insights Blog Series

Last year I wrote a monthly series of blog articles entitled ‘Growing a Blog Business’ in which I shared my strategies, developments, goals, and learnings as I ventured into the world of designing a popular and inspiring website (my first business of this kind). I wrote about traffic results and Adsense revenues such as to give some insight to prospective bloggers as to what they might expect in terms of income that could be generated from starting a blog business. As the year wrapped up, I noticed that these were some of the least popular articles on my website and the only real purpose they served was that of providing a monthly personal review of my accomplishments and goals. This lack of popularity is easily explained since the draw to this website revolves around the topics of personal growth, wellness, prosperity,coaching, and life balance. The articles were a departure from the message I wanted to share – even though I liked writing about these technical aspects.

Since the vast majority of the articles written on this website are in the form of a publishable document, I did enjoy the opportunity of expression that the Growing a Blog Business series offered. Specifically, they gave me the chance to be a blogger and not just a writer. So, I’ve taken my learnings from that small venture, and have opened up the Personal Insights Blog Series as a free for all to discuss topics and insights in a fashion which you the reader will benefit from. Each month, I’ll touch on what’s most pertinent to me and its likely to be pertinent to you as well. Lets kick it off!

Have an Attitude of Gratitude

Its likely that you’ve heard the old adage about having a attitude of gratitude and this has been on the top of my mind this last month. There’s a lot of reasons I’ve been thinking about it; the economy has many of people facing some difficult times (and just about everyone seems to be talking about it), I’ve been listening to an audio book on focusing on the good in life (book review to come soon), and probably the biggest reason its been on my mind is that I’ve been really challenged this last month with some malware that got installed on my website which blocked visitors from coming via Google searches – my biggest source of traffic. As a result, some of my popular articles dropped way down in the search engines which turned this site into a virtual ghost town for several weeks. I’ve worked very hard to get the level of traffic I’ve got today and to build this site from the ground up – this was potentially devastating.

Frustration was mounting, and since I’m not a programmer I didn’t know if I could resolve the problems myself, or if I’d have to spend a small fortune to fix it. You’re getting the gist of it – My attitude was not that of gratitude.

About 2 weeks into my website troubles, I participated in the techniques I so frequently discuss in this blog and I centered myself taking a few deep breaths and looked for the opportunity in the situation. By thinking through this, I’ve come up with another business idea I am excited to explore in more depth, I was able to upgrade a significant portion of my website – making it stronger and faster, and yes – ultimately was able to correct the malware which had infected the site without hiring an outside contractor. Ahhh.

Good and Bad Experiences are Gifts

All of our life experiences are a gift. Whether or not our immediate reaction to that experience is good or bad, each is a gift. Being diagnosed with cancer over 5 years ago now is one of the biggest gifts I’ve received in my life. What makes this, and any other perceived negative event a gift? Its the understanding that life is about growth and learning and our strengths are developed by all experiences not just the positive ones. Often, trying times bring about our greatest qualities and have the capacity to show us just how strong we are in the event that we are tested.

Have you let gratitude slip from your life because of your current situation? What is this situation teaching you? How is it turning you into a stronger person? What have you learned about yourself in the process?

Get Started Now

Take anything that comes at you today and consider it a gift. How is that email you received from your boss a gift? How is that fender bender last week a gift? Dig deep and when you move beyond the emotion of the situation, you’ll find a calm and peace in which gratitude resides.

Practice this regularly, seeing everything life hands you as a gift and express thank you to the world for what you are given. Since you’ve got a choice – why not take this approach! No one ‘has to’ react in any different way!

If you are finding this hard, start with a gratitude journal or a gratitude list. Ask yourself what you are grateful for today. In fact I’ll start this right now:

My beautiful daughter and the amazing hugs she gives (she’s 2 years old)
My wife, son and all my family
For the miracles in modern medicine which have me at 5 years cancer remission
To have the capacity to spread a positive message in the world through coaching and this website
For my material possessions – though they do not make me who I am, I am so grateful for the roof over my head, the food on my table each day, and that I’ve never struggled to have the bare necessities of life
My physical and mental health
Working from home 2 days/week
Iced tea
Being able to exercise 5x/week and balance this with work and family
Days spent by the beach

Make your own list. Write out 100 things you are grateful for and see how the rest of your day goes.

Why do it?

I for one am a bit tired of the media coverage as of late. Our infatuation with the negative, draw to gossip and bad news has us swimming in a sea of tension and negativism. Isn’t it refreshing when you see someone stunt a negative conversation by pointing out what’s good right now? Become that person. Lead by example and see how a seed of gratitude turns into a tree of positive attitude. Become aware of what you are grateful for and don’t hesitate to express that to others - especially if its them! Want to see the world become a better place? We’ve all heard that misery loves company – isn’t it the case that the opposite is also true?

Be Well