My only regret is this daily habit took me 22 years to discover. Don’t let it become yours.
Have you ever noticed that you seem to always focus on what’s wrong in your life instead of right? On your losses instead of your wins? We’re all guilty of this. But it’s not entirely our fault. The pink organ between our ears takes some of the responsibility.
Your brain is wired to be unhappy.
What’s more, this was a good thing – just not anymore. For our ancestors, bad could get you eaten, while good was just a bonus.
Evolution looks for use. Focusing on the good just wasn’t that useful for survival. If your ancestors weren’t so wrapped up in the bad – anything that might kill them – it’s likely you wouldn’t be here.
The problem is evolution hasn’t caught up to your new life, which means you’re stuck looking at the glass half empty. But you don’t have to. There’s a way to get your glass half full. It takes less than 5 minutes a day.
Gratitude
The Benefit of gratitude
Last I checked, the Cro-magnon man wasn’t making money on the side driving Uber. Just as you can learn to drive a car, you can learn to see the good in your life.
All it takes is three steps
- Find a notebook, either digital or paper.
- Number the page from 1 to 3.
- Write three things that you’re grateful for.
Not too hard, right? What’s hard is understanding how this simple practise of gratitude can profoundly affect your life.
When you intently practise gratitude, you’re training your brain to focus on what you have. We don’t expect our muscles to grow without working them, so why should our mindset be any different?
You can desire bigger muscles all you like, but without lifting weights, it’s impossible. Seeing the good in your life is no different. Without pumping out some reps of gratitude, you’ll always see a glass half empty.
By practising gratitude, you rewire your brain to see the wins as often as the losses and the good as often as the bad.
