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Spend a Moment Every Day Thinking of Someone to Thank

November 22, 1999

"This simple strategy, which may take only a few seconds to complete, has long
been one of the most important habits I have ever engaged in. I try to remember to start my day thinking of someone to thank. To me, gratitude and inner peace go hand in hand. The more genuinely grateful I feel for the gift of my life, the more peaceful I feel. Gratitude, then is worthy of a little practice.

If you're anything like me, you probably have many people in your life to feel grateful for: friends, family members, people from your past, teachers, gurus, people from work, someone who gave you a break, as well as countless others. You may want to thank a higher power for the gift of life itself, or for the beauty of nature.

As you think of people to be grateful for, remember that it can be anyone -- someone who allowed you to merge into traffic, someone who held the door open for you, or a physician who saved your life. The point is to gear your attention toward gratitude, preferably first thing in the morning. It may seem like an awfully simple suggestion, but it really works! If you wake up in the morning with gratitude on your mind, it's pretty difficult, in fact almost impossible, to feel anything but peace (Carlson, 1997, pp. 65-66)."

Reference: Carlson, R. (1997). Don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff. New York: Hyperion

Who are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

- Don't Sweat the Small Stuff is available on loan at the OSU Leadership
Center. A listing of the OSU Leadership Center's resources is available on our
website <http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/%7Eleaders>www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~leaders

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Created: 2009-01-06, Updated: 2009-01-16