Let’s embark on a different kind of gratefulness journey…

This Week’s Highlights:

Core Article on Mindset: Embarking on a Different Kind of Gratefulness Journey

Cool Stuff: The One Question Bill Gates Would Ask A Time Traveler

More Cool Stuff: The 10 Most Valuable Brands – Fascinating to see the shift from tangible companies to intangible…

AI Info & Resources: Are you a cat person? Good news, they’re still smarter than AI 🙂

Embarking on a Different Kind of Gratefulness Journey

You’ve heard me talk about gratefulness before and how important it is to cultivate on your entrepreneurial journey…

And today, we’re going down a different path to gratefulness.

I’ve just spent the last 52 days doing a most amazing exercise that’s shifted my mindset. And the results I’m getting are pretty inspiring, so of course, I wanted to share them with you!

Before I go further, I want to give credit to Melody Beattie and her book, Make Miracles in Forty Days: Turning What You Have Into What You Want.

She wrote this book in 2010, and I’d never heard about it until, of course, I stumbled across it a few months ago…

If you don’t know who Melody Beattie is, she wrote the best-seller Co-dependent No More and many other books. She’s also in recovery, as I am and has inspired me with her Daily Meditations — The Language of Letting Go that I’ve read every day for 8 years now.

Her gratefulness journey is different from any others I’ve discovered because it’s based on being grateful for all your struggles, challenges, and negative emotions and feelings that are present in your life every day.

It’s a transformative approach to shifting your mindset, growth, and healing.

I picked up her book because, in full disclosure, I was struggling with some decisions I needed to make this year in my business. I’m launching some new projects, and something was holding me back, and I wanted more clarity.

Plus, I knew I needed more growth and perspective around it. Beating myself up for not “doing enough” each day around my projects, or “not being productive enough,” just weren’t working for me anymore. I needed something different…

In the beginning it was hard for me to grasp. I’m so used to writing what I’m grateful for as being all the good things in my life, not the challenges and frustrations… (I know sounds a bit bizarre, and yet it works.)

The goal is to let go of outcomes and focus on what you have and how you feel, so it cultivates and even deeper mindset of abundance and possibility.

Every morning, after I’ve written my morning pages (Thank You Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way.), I’d grab my new gratefulness journal and write at the top — “I am grateful for…” Then I’d think about all the challenges I’m facing, the fear I might be feeling, the frustrations I’m having, and just write how I’m grateful for it all…

What started to happen after about day 4 – I started looking at my challenges in a different way. I was embracing them, feeling grateful for the lesson, and writing about that and what I’m learning from it and how it’s guiding me…

An example, I’m working on a new project and it’s frustrating the heck out of me. So I write about how I’m grateful for my frustration, how it’s showing me that I’m human, that I need to slow down, and be with this feeling. That it won’t last long. These feelings are giving me some insights into this project and guiding me a new direction, and how I’m becoming more curious…

Writing about my struggles and negative emotions is allowing me to acknowledge them openly and give them validation. And this is the first crucial step to processing and healing them.

It’s also helping me clarify my challenges and my feelings around them so it doesn’t feel as overwhelming. Especially when I take a moment and close my eyes and really feel grateful for this challenge and breathe into it.

It’s also helping me organize my thoughts, and giving me better clarity and understanding and a new perspective. Plus, it’s giving me a lot more empathy and compassion…

And, I’m able to recognize the patterns in my thoughts, old beliefs, and issues which is terrific awareness and insights to guide me moving forward.

Overall, this self-reflection and feeling grateful for all those parts of me I’m frustrated with has reduced the power and anxiety they have over me.

I notice how I’m more patient and reflective when things happen. It’s helping me slow down, be in the moment, and be more compassionate with myself and others.

And it’s not just about venting. It started out that way. It’s about transforming my perception of my adversities and encouraging me to find gratitude and lessons in every situation.

This shift in perspective is key to turning what you have into what you want, fostering a sense of empowerment, and opening up possibilities for miracles in your life.

If you’re interested in doing this process —

Get a Notebook & Commit to Write Daily for 40 days (or more)- Early mornings or before you go to bed are the ideal times. Commit to this for at least 40 days.
Write Down 3 to 5 Things – At the top of the page, write “I am Grateful For…” Then, write at least 5 things or more that you’re grateful for. I’d start with any challenges, negative feelings, situations, or things that are taking up too much space in your mind. Look at your writing with openness and acknowledgment without judgment.
Explore & Write Further – Don’t just stop with the one thing- write more about it, how your feeling, insights, reflections you have about it. It’s about honestly and allowing your feelings to flow freely.
Be Open To Shifting Your Perspective – Once you’ve listed and reflected on your challenges and negative feelings, when you’re ready, try to identify something positive, or even a lesson in each one. It could be something you’ve learned, a strength, a shift in perspective. Or it could be a way of how this experience can or has contributed to your growth and gratitude.

The goal is consistency and openness to whatever comes up. Don’t ignore or dismiss your negative feelings – look at how you can transform your relationship with them. By acknowledging them, you’re inviting the possibility of growth, healing, and miracles into your life.

My miracles have been a tremendous shift in my perspective towards my projects. And an openness to bigger possibilities. And a big shift in how I’m more aware, and compassionate with my journey…

Paragraph I’m Pondering:

“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them. But I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.” ~ Louisa May Alcott

Powerful Affirmations to Inspire:

“I now release my masterpiece to my higher self knowing that she will make any necessary adjustments to improve the picture, in order that I may receive all the good of the universe has for me now. Since I am assured that my desires will be fulfilled according to the love and wisdom of my super mind, my heart overflows with love and gratitude. The feeling of thankfulness pulsates throughout my entire being, and I am filled and thrilled with the joy of life. And it is so!” ~ Shannon McC

Weekly Earworm:

“Shut up and dance with me…” by Walk the Moon in 2014 – (Keep hearing it in my head after I attended a wedding this past weekend. Good dance song. 🙂

Cool & Interesting Stuff:

Altered States Are now Being Taken Seriously by MIT scientists.
The One Question Bill Gates Would Ask a Time Traveler About The Future
Check out the Top 10 Most Valuable Brands – Many of the top brands are tech, IP and other intangible assets, very different from the past when it was tangible products like the automobile industry, oil, and land. Note these aren’t the most profitable brands. They are the ones that have the most value.

AI Info & Resources:

Why a Housecat Is Still Smarter Than the Best AI
It’s about the problems you’re trying to solve – not about AI – find the best AI approach to solve your problem.
This customer service AI is outperforming it’s humans — hmmmm

Weekly Photos:

This past week I ended heading down to Houston, TX to be with my family for a wedding. It’s always entertaining and a bit stressful being around family and also being out of a regular routine.
The first pup nose shot is my nieces 4-month-old Border Collie Archer – love Border Collie’s they’re so cute and so trainable. I had him doing “spin” in a few secs. (I used to train dogs in a previous life.)
Then there’s the big black ugly rain clouds from the air as we were landing into San Francisco. That storm basically shook us about like we were popcorn.
Snow on the mountains (And still clouds and rain) – lots of it with these past West Coast snow storms – poor Mammoth Mountain – they got CRAZY snow.
No newsletter is complete without Emma and her scraggly self after a walk in the rain.
The last pic is of my 3 nieces and my sister from the wedding.