Today I have a completely different article for you. The short story I am using as an intro into the subject you may have seen or heard before.

Usually it is told as an example of how clever marketing can boost your sales, or the that the power of words – correctly used – is vastly superior to a one-liner.

It is worthwhile noting that in the first instance how Nick Ortner, the CEO of The Tapping Solution, tells it here and takes it to a completely different angle.

So sit back, enjoy the fable, and then follow me on some ideas that will help you propel you into your Best Year Ever in 2021:

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet.

He held up a sign which read, “I am blind, please help.”

There were only a few coins in the hat – spare change from folks as they hurried past.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words.

Then he put the sign back in the boy’s hand so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.

That afternoon, the man who had changed the sign returned to see how things were.

The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.” I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.”

Both signs spoke the truth. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign conveyed to everyone walking by how grateful they should be to see…

When your life seems full of troubles, it seems difficult to maintain an attitude of gratitude, doesn’t it? All we see are our problems, like a blackened storm cloud casting a dark shadow over our lives.

And the times when everything just seems to be going smoothly? We often take these precious moments for granted too, don’t we? Caught up in the bliss, comfort, and familiarity of it all, we can simply forget to be thankful.

So what, then, is gratitude?

Simply put, gratitude is a habit. It’s a way of looking at the world and all the good things in it with a feeling of appreciation, regardless of whether or not your current situation is to your liking.

Gratitude is a heart-centered approach to being at peace with yourself and with all you have. When you practice this feeling of gratitude, it attracts even MORE things into your life for which to be grateful.

Go ahead, try it out right now. What or who do you have in your life to be thankful for?

Lovely story, and a great perspective of what Nick did with it.

So how does Gratitude fit into creating Your Best Year Ever this year?

Well, it may come as a surprise to you, but it has been scientifically proven that people who regularly practice Gratitude are more successful in all areas of their life, because they are more centered, more at peace and more focused in everything they do.

Especially when it comes to Goal Setting, New Year Resolutions and creating Success Habits for 2021 you want to be in the best mental state you can be to put these into action.

Coming from a place of Gratitude of where you are at and what you already have to start with is a perfect strategy to create powerful goals, and set about achieving them for 2021.

This is a completely different attitude from what most people are doing – coming from a place of scarcity. “I’m missing this, I’m missing that, this is not working, that is bad in my life…I don’t have enough money/love/success…and I want to change it!”

Coming from a place of Gratitude is, however, is a completely different, a better, more powerful approach.

You’re not beating yourself up, and in the process just reinforcing all the bad stuff you were thinking about, you concentrate on what’s good in your life – and you create a plan to improve upon it.

If you need a bit of help with that, please check out the course ‘BEST YEAR EVER’

So how do you incorporate more Gratitude into your life and make it a daily habit in 2021?

One of the easiest and most powerful strategies you can apply to have more Gratitude in your life is Journaling. If you’ve never done t or heard of it – please read on:

The way to ensure that journaling works for you in 2021 and beyond is to do it regularly. Regular journaling gives you more insight into your life because you’ll be able to look to the past, present, and even the future (sort of) to get answers in your life. But first, you have to do it. And you need to do it daily to make it a habit. Let’s review a few tips for making journaling part of your daily routine.

1           Make It Easy – Don’t make it a huge deal, and it’ll be simpler to get done. For example, it’s easier to use a notebook and paper than a computer for most people. It has also been proven to be more effective and powerful in the same way that science tells us that physically writing down our goals is a 100 times more powerful than typing them up on a laptop or putting them into a phone App. The mere act of writing – the hand-brain connection – hammers it into our subconscious mind and forges it into a powerful goal that every part of your body strives to fulfil. In the same way the physical act of filling in your Gratitude Journal triggers all the right neurons in your brain to fire up to create results for you going forward. You can have your Journal-Book in your briefcase, bag or on your bedside table or wherever you plan to write in it.

 

2           Choose a Time That Works – The best times to do it are either early morning, first thing, or the last thing you do before you go to bed. However, I realize that might not work for everyone. If you know a better time, do it. For example, perhaps you like journaling while on lunch at work or while you’re having a break in the park. It’s up to you.

 

3           Get a Drink and Eat a healthy Snack – You don’t want to have any excuses or extraneous thoughts while you’re writing in your journal. Make sure you’re fed and hydrated.

 

4           Create a Comfortable and Assessable Space – It’s easier to get into your thoughts if you’re comfortable and not thinking about how bad your tailbone, neck or your wrist hurts. Maybe you like using a desk, or a comfy easy chair, or perhaps you like writing in your Gratitude Journal in bed.

 

5           Combine It with Something Else You Enjoy Doing – If you enjoy listening to music and using it to relax, then why not journal at the same time? If it’s a daily thing, add journaling to it, and it’ll create a habit fast. Now it’s true that some people prefer silence, so that’s fine if you do. But consider trying some music that doesn’t have words and that is relaxing, to help you gather your thoughts and say calm and focused.

 

6           Use a Particular Type of Journal – For some people, using a style of journaling like bullet journaling, prayer journaling, project journaling, and more, works better since it defines some rules for entry.

 

7           Reward Yourself – When you have been diligent for a month writing in your journal, take some time to read what you wrote, then reward yourself for doing it. You could buy some colored pens or some scrapbooking materials so you can add some definition and interest to your journal.

 

Let me share one more thing here on a very personal note – I strongly recommend you go out and buy a really nice, special Journal for yourself. That is what I have done, and I really enjoy my classy, leather-bound, heavy-paper Gratitude Journal. Yeah sure – It cost a little bit more than a standard school notebook, but it is special, personal, important to me.

I put all my inner-most thoughts and ideas into it – it just wouldn’t feel right using some dog-eared old notebook for that. This is “Me-time”, so I make sure I look forward to picking it up, feeling it’s weight, admiring it’s leather a bit. It’s part of a daily ritual that is very personal and important to me, so I don’t want it to be another throw-away item I bought at the Dollar-Store.

By the way – while you’re at it, invest in a really nice pen, something that feels good in your hand, something you are going to enjoy writing with. And – naturally – you’ll only use it for your Gratitude Journal. It’s special, its’ exclusive…you know what I’m getting at!

To truly experience the full benefits of journaling, you need to do it most days, which is why you need to find a way to incorporate journaling into your everyday life. The best way to accomplish this is to make it easy and turn it into a habit as I have shown you in the 7 steps.

Now get going and soon you will see how Gratitude Journalling helps you to transform 2021 into your Best Year Ever!