As Thanksgiving Day nears I find myself thinking about life… it’s taken me many years to understand how my everyday choices have molded me into who I am. And the more thought I give to it, the more appreciation I feel for the things that make it so.
I once had someone tell me that, “The things we take for granted, will one day be taken from us.” I’ve digested that statement over and over again for years now and it’s led me this holiday season to ask myself the question of ‘Does one really have to lose something before they can have a true appreciation for it?’ In short… my answer today would be NO. One doesn’t have to lose something to fully appreciate it, if they do it right along their way. That being said, I am incredibly appreciative for the life I get to live right now. At the same time however I can’t help but feel the desire to be even more self-aware and grateful on a daily basis. Being thankful for what we have should never be condensed down into just one calendar day of the year.
So, as I sit here and write out my strategy to find a better way to treat every day like it was Thanksgiving (no, not eating until I pass out, but rather committing to spending time daily to be grateful), something begins to dawn on me. The more we experience the things that we have, from the miraculous to the simplest, the more they become invisible to us. We become so familiar with having these things in our daily lives that we lose sight of our appreciation for them and inevitably take them for granted.
So back to that statement I once heard of the things we take for granted, will one day be taken from us. Whether or not we make it true, imagine if everything you took for granted was gone tomorrow. This inspired me to write out a list of what I am most grateful for, yet I tend to often overlook and under-appreciate. I plan to review this list once a day while adding to it over time.
It is certainly an incomplete list, as I have more to be thankful for than I could ever list off, but here are the things that at the time of writing this, mean the most to me. The things I am choosing to be consciously grateful for every single day moving forward.
I’m grateful for:
- The love and respect that my wife and I share for each other
- My two wonderful parents who brought me up in a loving home
- The bond that I share with my two brothers
- A brain and body that allows me to see, hear, taste, smell and feel the world around me
- My two ever faithful dogs
I’m grateful everyday for the choice I have:
- To be optimistic
- To maintain my dignity and respect for myself
- To learn from my mistakes and try again when I fail
- To choose the attitude I take with me everywhere, everyday
- To have trust and hope
- To see the good in others
- To ask for help myself and not let my ego get in the way
- To be a good listener
- To be an original version of me, and not a replica of someone else
- To be a gentleman
- To teach and develop myself
- To have a sense of humor
- To see problems as possibilities
- To not let vanity overtake me
- To not let money or greed or power be the driver of me
- To not let possessions define me
- To appreciate differences in opinions
- To realize that I’m not always right
- To appreciate nature and its role in our world
- To communicate effectively
- To be open and willing to change
- And lastly, I’m grateful for the choice I have to show my appreciation for how very fortunate I am to be alive and healthy to write this today.
For all these things, and many more, I am truly grateful. Each of these things are priceless to me. I couldn’t buy any of them with all the money in the world, and I wouldn’t trade any of them for it either. The more I look at this list, the more I realize how much gratitude is a choice and how much of a difference it makes in our lives.
So, thank you Thanksgiving, for reminding me yet again, why one day of self-awareness is simply not enough to show the appreciation for everything we ought to be grateful for. And thank you in advance to anyone willing to remind me to live by my list.
Cheers & Happy Thanksgiving!
Matt
