I get it. Mondays aren’t always the easiest to have a good attitude about, even if you are working your dream job or you feel like you’re really pursuing your life’s greatest work. Sometimes Mondays are just tough. Shoot, somedays everyday is just tough.
My Monday started at 5AM and before 5:30AM hit, I had pushed the snooze button two times, my automated coffee pot hadn’t brewed on the expected timer and I accidentally dropped my iPhone on the kitchen floor, shattering every square millimeter of the screen, rendering itself out of commission. Not exactly the start to the week I was hoping for, but, after giving myself a minute to have a personal pity-party, I realigned my frustration by speaking gratitude out loud. (I literally have to speak gratitude verbally in times like this because it’s the quickest way to silence the frustration or anxiety that is too loud on the inside of my mind … I have to make what I say on the outside be louder than what’s being thought on the inside so that my thinking hears the truth and shifts to change to a better perspective.) My gratitudes for this morning went something like this: I am thankful for Apple Care – my phone can be replaced. I am thankful for inconveniences – and a day filled with impending tedious tasks, for it makes me appreciate days of rest that give me time for creativity. I am thankful that, even though it took me extra time this morning, I am cradling a glorious cup of coffee and that its bitter brew is something that I can easily revisit and have more of throughout the day. For every task ahead of me today awaits double or triple that in things I can find appreciation in and gratitude for in my heart if I commit myself to being aware and intentional in my attitude today.
Gratitude changes everything. It takes you from beating yourself up over the past (um, like, seriously, how clumsy was I to shatter my own phone – the phone I do about 90% of my work from – the phone that I don’t have a protective case on … case in point that there is always room to find ways you “should have” done differently in the past) and from worrying about the future. In the most simplistic of ways, gratitude gives you the gift of the present and that’s the gift I want your Monday to give to you today too.
Free yourself from being stuck in thinking about the past or with being overwhelmed by anxiety about the future by focusing today on gratitude. Gratitude will ground you in the present. Anchor yourself firmly to it today.
It is impossible to live in a state of confidence if you are living in the past or the future. Confidence is a gift, the reward, if you will, received when living in the present. If you want to be more confident, find more ways to pursue intentionally being present. In addition to the strategy of grounding yourself in gratitude, I have 9 strategies for you, shared in last week’s episode of #ConfidenceOnTheGo on how to be present in the present. Find out the strategies for free by just hitting the link here: www.trishblackwell.com/178
Be grounded in gratitude today!
Confidently yours,