How A Chance Meeting Led To A Life-Changing Diary of Gratitude

Sometimes things just line up correctly. Sometimes we fall into good fortune. This page is all about such an event. This page is about a powerful tool that I would never anticipate, nor even consider as something I would start, let alone continue to this day. But it has been essential in my personal growth as an accountable citizen. I'll show you how a diary of gratitude helped push me through a pathway that had been opened by an example of leadership and service to others.

If you read our page about finding purpose in life, you know I was going through a "woe is me" valley where everything in my life appeared to be just dreadful and of course it had to be due to my personal misfortune, through no fault of my own. I was sort of trying to work my way out of the cycle of codependency that had consumed years of my life, but the process was greatly restricted by my lack of personal responsibility.

diary of gratitude

How A Diary of Gratitude Was Started

In that page about purpose you know that after seeing a young group of high school age students working to help homeless people and doing it with such enthusiasm, I was finally drawn into their world of servant leadership.

But something else happened that was an added bonus. They spoke of being grateful for being out there and for the opportunity. There was no grumbling about early morning starts or cold weather.

One of them spoke of being thankful for meeting some new friends and would be adding it to a diary of gratitude. It turns out this had become a regular practice for this young leader. A few questions later spelled out for me how blind I had been in my own recognition of the power of gratitude.

In the next section I share some simple "how-to" suggestions, but there isn't really a right or wrong way to use a diary of gratitude, other than not having one because you don't know how to show gratitude or don't see things in which you should be grateful. I was in both of those spots, the latter more than the former.

Here's the thing. If you follow through on this advice and start your own diary of gratitude, your physical and mental health will improve. You will gain energy you never thought you could have, and your personal confidence will shoot up exponentially. Your sleep patterns will improve because you will be wringing out as much good from every day as you are humanly able to produce.

You will draw people to you because people want to follow someone who knows where he or she is going and knows why. You will more readily accept responsibility for your life in every aspect, good and not so good. And over time, you will see so much to be grateful for that you will wonder how you missed it for so long.

How do I know this? How can I be so sure? Because it happened to me. Because someone who wasn't a fan of writing, had so many bad habits that kept me wallowing in despair and not only didn't see the glass as half full, but complained because my glass had a leak in it, was able to make positive changes helped by this simple diary of gratitude.

That is my message of thanks and gratitude. Check out this five minute video and then go through the easy steps in creating your own diary of gratitude. You won't regret it.

Some Easy Guidelines

1.) It doesn't matter what you use to compile your moments and experiences of gratitude. As long as "just keeping it your head" isn't your method. I tried that one. It will fail. Our melancholy co-editor saw me taking this shortcut and reminded me about what happens when we attempt to set achievable goals that are not written down.

2.) In the same vein as that goal-setting skill, be specific. I also tried the vague, quick entry, but was shorting myself from the full value. If we are going to use this diary of gratitude, we might as well use it to it's full advantage.

3.) Be consistent. That could be once a day, or once a week. I, of course started out with the easier version but it didn't take long to recognize that by beginning this process my eyes were quickly opened to how much I truly had to be grateful for and how much better my attitude about life was becoming.

4.) Detail on paper or maybe the "notes" app on your cell phone, how each entry in your diary of gratitude was such a gift and how your life would not be as full and blessed if you didn't have this person or event in which you are so grateful.

This tool will work for you. I know it will because it worked for me and if I can do it, it's certain all of you can do it better. I forgot one more benefit you will receive from the power of gratitude. As you read in our page about habits, it's a waste of your valuable time to try to change bad habits. Instead, we recommended you simply replace them with good habits.

Your diary of gratitude will do this for you and you won't even have to give it any extra thought. As your personal outlook on life brightens, you will be modeling a new form of accountability. You will be teaching people how they can show gratitude and it will all come from your daily actions as you also show them how to be more responsible.

This is just another tool at your disposal. One of our core values is to simplify leadership development. Follow these steps and you will be making a big difference in the lives of people you meet, all the while gaining those personal benefits we highlighted in that second section of this page.

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