Hey there, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create
and life you love.
And you know what?
Here in the US we are just about to celebrate one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving.
I love it for two reasons.
One because I get to cook for my friends, and two because I get to eat a lot of mashed
potatoes, and those are two things I can do all day long.
Now, this is also a time of the year when we all start to hear a lot about gratitude,
and I love gratitude because I think it is the number one super tool to transform your
life.
But here’s the thing, gratitude can feel a little, you know, cliche.
You might think like, “Ugh, gratitude.
I’m so over it.
Been there, done that.
It’s so Oprah in the 90s.”
Here is the deal though, if you’ve got gratitude fatigue I can pretty much bet you’re doing
it wrong.
I know, right?
Who knew you could do gratitude wrong.
I didn't know that until I read this here book by Robert Emmons called Gratitude Works.
Now, Robert is the leading researcher on gratitude.
Now, here’s the thing, I wanna teach you one trick that I learned from Robert that’ll
help take your gratitude practice from something that’s, you know, kinda nice into a total
miracle smoothie for your emotional well being.
Now, before I tell you this one strategy, I’ve gotta be up front.
This is about gratitude journaling.
And before you go, “Ugh, journaling.
That’s just too much work.
I don't wanna do it.”
Stop.
Journaling is awesome.
Two reasons.
Number one, when you journal you start to uncover personal insights about yourself which
can really help you unwire any negative patterns that you have, and we all have them.
Number two, when you journal on the regular you really develop discipline and discipline
is awesome for following through and getting results.
Now, these two benefits never come when you just think about gratitude, so don't be so
quick to dismiss the journal practice.
Ok, so here is the big magic gratitude trick.
If you want the most ROI for your gratitude practice, the dividends are in the details.
It turns out that most of us are pretty lazy when it comes to our gratitude practice, kinda
like this.
What’s wrong with that?
It is way too general.
So research shows that if we want the most bang for our gratitude buck, we have got to
get specific.
That means way more depth and less breath.
Check this out.
The University of Southern California did a 10 week study on gratitude journaling with
3 groups.
The first group were generalists: writing down 5 general things a day they were grateful
for.
The second group got specific: they picked one thing a day and wrote 5 sentences about
it.
The third group wrote about ways which they were better off than other people.
Excuse us.
Here’s the results.
It turns out that the group that wrote 5 sentences about one thing were more elated, excited,
and alert than the other groups and less tired, sad, and lethargic.
Bottom line, details equal dividends.
And I gotta tell you, this really, really works.
So I tried it.
I am so grateful for Josh, but instead of just of just saying, “I’m grateful for
Josh,” I wrote down five really specific things that I’m grateful for and I want
to read them to you right now.
So I’m grateful that over the 11 years that we’ve been together he’s brought me a
hot beverage in the morning at least 1,500 times.
He makes me laugh more than anyone else in the world because he’s just so funny.
He always says he’s sorry first even if I’m being overly sensitive, and not just
to placate me, but because he genuinely is sorry.
And he consistently hopes… helps me to slow down to enjoy life.
And, most importantly, he makes the most delicious blueberry banana walnut peanut butter pancakes
for me and all my friends.
Ok, so if you wanna help spread the word about the right way to do gratitude, then you gotta
share this here tweetable.
“When it comes to gratitude, the dividends are in the details.”
So now I would love to hear from you, and I want you to get grateful in the comments.
So choose one person or thing that you’re grateful for and write five specific, detailed
reasons why.
As always, the best discussions happen after the episode over at MarieForleo.com, so get
your butt over there and leave a comment now.
Did you like this video?
Are you grateful for it?
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Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world really does need
that special gift that only you have.
Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on MarieTV.