What is playing in your playlist?

What are you telling yourself each day?

This post is inspired by a recent book by Rhonda Byrne called “The Magic.” It has 28 days of gratitude exercises to help you focus on being grateful for 28 days. I highly recommend it, I am grateful it was written. It helped me remember a story of the power of gratitude in my life when I went to go running and my iPod battery was dead so I couldn’t listen to music or my self-development playlist.

Think about how you can adjust the meaning of your current situation based on a different meaning.

A few years ago, I was in the process of training for the P.F. Chang’s Rock n’ Roll half marathon with my friend Tyler when I discovered my iPod battery was dead. Instead of being disappointed, I asked myself a simple question: “How can I enjoy God’s grace guiding me even more in this moment as I enjoy life as it beautifully evolves exactly as it should?” Because I knew that everything is “spiritual elegance” at work, I thought that I would take the time to be thankful for everything I have. For one hour and ten minutes straight, I was thankful for:

• the beautiful night sky
• my friends
• my family
• my coaching clients
• the safe surroundings
• the cars that were passing
• comfortable running shoes
• my struggles
• my successes
• my upcoming trip to Australia
• the discipline it was taking to train for the half-marathon
• the ability to even run

It was so beautiful to just take a moment to be content with and to be thankful for everything I had. I came back feeling absolutely amazing.

A Round of Applause

Another breakthrough came from listening to the song Bravo by Ledisi. I saw her perform at the Arizona Jazz festival and really connected with her passion. There is a particular line in one of her songs that moved me and I hope you feel the love in the words and use them to improve your day, week, month, and life:

All I want is to see the whole world stand up tonight
(Take on pain)
Yeah we celebrating life
(Throw it away)
It don’t matter who you are
(Or where you’re from)
Yeah if you been working hard
(Just give yourself a round of applause)

Just give yourself a round of applause.

It is human nature to look back to the past and think, “I should have done it this way,” or “I should have done it that way.” How many times do you think about what is coming up ahead? Being thankful for the moment is such an important part of our growth. These moments of reflection are what you need to be present exactly where you are. Not what happened, not what is going to happen, but what is happening. By learning the lessons from now and using your resources from now, you will know where to go moving forward.

Putting it on Pause

Recently, one of the brightest stars from Broadway, Idina Menzel, went through a rough patch where she needed to take a step back and look at where she was. Idina was at the top of her fame (you have probably heard her as the voice of Elsa in Frozen), but she was completely unhappy. She was living and working in Hollywood, going through a divorce, and realizing her newfound “success” was not what made her happy. So what did she do? She looked around at what she had that she was thankful for: her voice, her son, her friends, and industry connections. Idina teamed up with writers she loved, friends she made throughout her years on Broadway, and worked until she had a musical that reflected who she was – and she came back to Broadway to acclaim, a Tony nomination, and open arms.

Embrace your inner diva! Open your arms to your greatest possibility for you.

What challenge in your current life can you ask yourself a new simple question to help through to Thrive?

There is so much going on in today and everyday, taking care of things at work, taking care of things at home, taking care of the kids… Take 5 minutes to simply pause and listen to the amazing songs of gratitude you can be singing to yourself…about yourself.

Appreciate what you have. Most importantly, don’t forget the number one person you should thank – yourself.

Want a deeper life of fulfillment? Get started with the Home Story 10 questions to help me understand what is getting in the way of you living a deeply fulfilling life. https://enjoylifedaily.com/homestory10questions/

I encourage you to enjoy life daily.

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