You Are Great

I've really gotten into letting people know how how much I appreciate their kindness, talents, helpfulness, friendship, competence, positiveness and everything else about them there is to appreciate. You know it really feels good. Try it.

Let people know that you care about them.
Let people know how wonderful they are.
Complement, complement, complement!

I Believe

Approach my day believing it will be a great day. Approach my day as if all will work out the way I expect it to and it will be for the best. That means that I can't have a defeatist attitude and I have to leave negativity at the door. My day will be awesome.

Putting My Priorities In Order

I am the kind of person that volunteers, puts others first, has minimal time for enjoying the company of my friends because I'm busy saving my piece of the world? I've been this person for many years, but now I've decided to change my priorities. I've always tried to put my family first and now I am going to add myself and my friends to my high priority list. I've been cutting back on my volunteering over the last year, but I haven't put my friends and their companionship back on the top of my list.

I will be intentional about making a date with a friend.

Focus On The Positive

It's easy to fixate about the not so great things happening with my job situation right now. It makes me feel pretty negative and have a defeatist attitude. When these feelings start, I am going to ask myself, “What is one good thing that happened at work today?” or “What is one good thing about my job?” Hopefully, this will help me to focus on the positive.

Thank You For All You Do

I was at a beautiful memorial service today. The stories that were told by family and friends were funny, happy, charming and loving. She was a hero to her children. It made me wonder if I've been proactive about telling people how much I appreciate them. Have I told my parents how grateful I am to them for our home, college expenses, and all the other ways they've done for me.

I want to be intentional with telling people how much I appreciate what they have done for me and continue to do for me. When someone does something for me, I will let them know right away how grateful I am to have them in my life and how thankful I am for what they did for me.

Grateful For Natures Treasures

I've been enjoying the full moon the last few nights. The intense, yellow color in all its fullness is spectacular to me. Since tomorrow is Saturday and gorgeous weather is expected, I am going to explore nature and find some of the treasures she so graciously shares with us.

Believe In Myself

I have the ability to turn things around. When someone tells me, “You can't do that.”, “You'll never win.” or “Your wasting your time.”, I need to remind myself by saying out loud or in my head, “Of course I can.” Lately, I've been my own worst critic and I've had enough. I'm going to adopt the attitude of “Yes, I can.” “I will succeed.” “Who wouldn't value my expertise.”

I will be intentional about believing in myself and writing in my gratitude journal about my Yes I Can attitude.

The Weight Of The World On My Shoulders

I'm one of those people that feels deeply when I see an injustice, minor or major. When I see something that is wrong, I feel the need to try to fix it or at least fixate on it. A change is in order. Now when I see or feel an injustice that doesn't impact me or the world around me, I'm going to let it go. There is no reason to take on the problems of those around me, especially when it is beyond my control and in many cases, beyond everyone's control.

A Dream Come True

My husband was asked to join a band a few months ago that he has admired for years. Saturday they played their first gig together. My husband was in heaven. I have never seen anyone play with the kind of contentment and joy expressed so openly on their face as he did. It was a beautiful sight to behold. Now he has worked hard over the years to perfect his playing. He has played with a variety of bands and musicians every opportunity he could. He has been in several groups and duos always practicing, perfecting and playing. His hard work was evident to all of us that have followed his musical progression over the years. Your there baby.

When you have a dream, work hard to make your dream a reality. Take classes, practice, learn, read or whatever you can do to achieve your dream. I will be intentional with creating a plan to further my dreams and to start putting that plan in place.

Update: I signed up for 2 workshops that I hope will help me along the journey to my dream.

Oh, What A Beautiful Morning

What one thing in my life makes me deliriously happy?
When I wake up tomorrow, I will wake up very positive because I have this deliriously happy thing/person in my life. I will bring this thought of joy back all day long.

Make a Difference

Do something that will make a difference in the world or in your piece of the world. Use your time, talent and treasure to give back to an organization or charitable event that is meaningful to you.

Update: I found being president of my congregation to be transformative. Not only do I now have an in depth understanding of the financial, volunteer time, and volunteer talent commitment to run our organization, I also am appreciative of all the good that a group of committed people can do to positively impact their piece of the world.

There's Always Hope

I need to remain hopeful at a time when I'm feeling trapped. I need to focus on the positive of my situation and let go anything that I can let go.

Grateful For Me Again

This exercise was previously done on April 7th, 2010 and titled Grateful For Me.

Write a list of 5 traits I like about myself in my gratitude journal and they need to be different from the first time I did this exercise.

Update: I've been going through a somewhat difficult time and I found it empowering to remember 5 strong traits about myself. I needed that.

Practicing Compassion

I will work on showing compassion when it is appropriate. It feels like a good skill for me to practice and get better at.

Gratitude Is A Good Thing

I am going to practice gratitude by thinking about a person, a place, or an event that makes me feel joyful. I will write this item down on an index card and put it in my pocket and glance at the card periodically. I hope to bring back this happy memory all day long.

Update: There is a place in Alaska that I use as my happy place when I meditate. My husband and I went there over 20 years ago and took this hike up a mountain that went by an old, abandoned gold mining area. When we got to the top, I could hardly breath from the beauty that surrounded me. As I spun myself slowly in every direction, there were hills of mountains that went on forever. The rock we stopped to eat our lunch on was by a carpet of these dainty, alpine wildflowers. About 30 feet from this spot was a glacier. Everywhere we walked was more beautiful that anything I had every seen before. The awe of this place, the beauty of this place, the hugeness of the mountains, and the sweetness of the air are all memories that I come back to whenever I want to be calm and to feel the joy that nature brings to me over and over again.

Singing In The Shower

I am not comfortable singing in the shower, but who is really going to hear me?: My husband, daughter, and my cats. I need to shake it up a bit and bring a little more happiness into my life. It's time I break down a little more of the barrier I've put up and let my family know I like to sing. Tomorrow morning, I'm singing in the shower and I'm not going to care who hears me.

Update: I was a little self conscious, but I went for it and it felt great. Maybe next I'll sing in my car.

Enjoy The Choice You Make

In our 20s, my husband had a friend that investigated what the right choice for the stereo of his dreams would be. He couldn't make himself buy it because, what if something better came out. Then he would have missed his opportunity to get the best. He did the same thing with buying a computer which, at the time, were being upgraded a few times per year. It seemed so sad to me.

This is the lesson I learned from our friend: Enjoy the choice I make. Don't second guess myself. It doesn't have to be the best because that is never attainable. If I focus on the positive aspects of why my choice was a good decision, then I more likely to feel the delight in my choice.

Having A Feeling Of Accomplishment

Do you ever feel like your not getting anything done? I sure have. This is the technique that works for me to make me feel like I am getting things done and am productive. I'm a list person. I always write my lists so part of it is achievable quickly and with out stress. Therefore, I always have somethings to cross off with minimal effort: Like pay the gas and water bills etc. It gives me a real sense of accomplishment as I check off the completed tasks. I also break them down so that they are more likely to get done. As they get crossed off, I feel like I took a positive step today.

That Was Really Nice

Write down in my gratitude journal something really nice that someone has done for me. If the memory juices are really flowing, then write a list of nice things that several people have done for me.

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

You've heard the saying that laughter is the best medicine. When feeling a little down, watch a comedy, have a child tell you their favorite jokes or do whatever it is that makes you laugh.

Energy Boost

I've learned to carve out time each day for myself for exercise. Today is a low energy day for me and when I am done with this entry, I'll go and put in a 3 mile walk. This is the most consistent way I've found to rev up my energy level. Since I've been walking daily and doing my hand weights 3 times per week, I have never felt better emotionally and physically.

Exercise has been the greatest gift I've given to myself. I will be intentional with carving out time for myself daily for exercise

Reflection – Day 200ish

The point of living a life of gratitude for me, is to live my life with the intention of becoming the best person I can be. These are the things I've done that seem to have the greatest impact on others feeling better about themselves around me and what I've learned along the way about myself.

Others seem to appreciate when I listen to them, smile, say hello, ask how they are doing, say thank you and show real appreciation for their help. I also believe it has been very helpful to just recognize how difficult of a time people may be having, but that I recognize their efforts.

Since I've started intentionally living a life of gratitude, I feel much happier because I realize what an amazing life I have. I feel more able to ride out difficult situations and I am more likely to stay positive by looking at the good in each situation rather than focus on the not so good. It has been a very enlightening and appreciative experience for me and I am looking forward to the next 100 days journey.

Making Peace With Your Money

This topic of money, emergency funds, having your savings and spending in line with your values and dreams, paying yourself first, enjoying your money and automatic savings are all important issues. I wrote a book for my daughters 3 or 4 years ago on the topic of finances and what they needed to understand about investing, emergency funds, debt, saving and other slightly advanced financial topics.

I'd like to explore in greater detail the baggage we come with to our adult life from our parents and families about money. Also, I want us to understand how to not have the stress of living a life filled with debt nor do I want us to live a life of financial self denial. It's about enjoying our money, making some sacrifices to reach our ultimate dreams and goals in life. Stay tuned for my new blog called MakingPeaceWithYourMoney. I'm going to take a few months before starting this blog. Please join me in November and we'll make peace with our money together.

Have An Emergency Fund

What happens when a financial emergency happens. For me, I just paid a $500 vet bill and I have a 10 year old car, kaching. I need to be able to sleep at night and I can do that a lot better knowing I have an emergency fund for unexpected expenses. Whenever I get below a certain amount of money in my emergency fund, I redirect money back in that bucket until it is built up to an amount I am comfortable with.

Check how much money I have in my emergency fund and make changes if it is low.

Pay Myself First

I'd read many years ago, when I started on my financially informed journey, that you pay yourself first from each paycheck. That means before you pay the bills or spend your money, you put money aside for important dreams. I like to think of it as buckets of money. If I want to save money for my daughter's college, I put x dollars in the college bucket. I'd do the same thing for retirement, a house or whatever else may be important to me. I've come to learn that if I don't want to feel like a martyr, I also need to put aside money for myself; for something not as noble as college or retirement. We could call it a dreams bucket. I've been doing this for at least a decade, possibly two. Now I want to look over my finances and get them in line with my dreams and values. When I wrote my wishes list there was an awful lot of traveling dreams that I wrote down. I'm thinking it is time to start a travel bucket. I will spend time looking where I can make some cuts to fund that important wish I have. ..No time like today.

Also remember to leave enough money to cover your bills and other fixed costs: food, gas etc.

Credit Card Debt

If you find that you need to use your credit cards to buy your groceries, pay your water and electric bill and you can't pay off the debt at the end of the month, then you may be living beyond your means. This may be the time to meet with a debt counselor to help you with your finances.

If you are using shopping as a form of therapy for yourself, or your addicted to clothes, shoes, craft purchases, and you can't pay off your monthly credit card bill, then it may be time to reexamine your values and goals list. Is your spending in line with your goals? Is it in line with your values? The interest rates on credit cards are high and if you miss paying the minimum amount once or are late with the payment, those rates generally are increased to an exorbitant amount.

If you have credit card debt and your spending is on non essential items, then come up with a plan to pay at least the minimum on each card. Take the card with the highest interest rate and pay extra on that card until it is paid off. Then do the same thing with the next card with the highest rate. If you can consolidate the cards to the cards with the lowest rates, then that is a first step that should be taken. Meeting with a debt counselor may be a good idea as they can help you with budgeting and truly understand your financial situation.

It would be very difficult for me to live a life of gratitude, if I felt weighed down by debt.