Finding Clarity, Purpose and Happiness.

With Thanksgiving knocking at the door, a lot will be said this week about gratitude. 

And rightfully so. Bringing what you’re grateful for into the forefront of your awareness has been proven to be foundational to happiness.

#blessed

In just a week – once December hits – the messages you hear will shift to preparing and planning for the New Year. 

Reflect. 
Evaluate. 
Set goals.

We tend to keep the practices of gratitude and planning in separate columns. In gratitude we lean into the heart and in planning, the head.  

Gratitude is about the past and the present – planning about the future.

And yet, you are one being, with one life. 

By separating the two, you run the risk of setting goals outside of the things that really matter to you or miss the chance to truly appreciate and learn from the adventure your life presents.

Claude Monet once said, “To see, you must forget the name of the thing you are looking at.”

When you merge the columns of planning and gratitude, of then and now, and look at your whole life – past, present and future – through the lens of curiosity and wonder, the path becomes clearer and every pebble on it, becomes something to be grateful for.

This Week:   2020 Vision

1. Start by making a list of everything you can think of to be grateful for.  Let yourself go, write down everything that comes to mind – food, toes, family dinner, sunrises, your kids, friends, seashells – literally anything that comes to mind.

2. Look over the list, envisioning each item as you read it. Highlight the ones that fill you with love, joy, or the deep gratitude you can feel in your body.

3. Next make a list of the goals you have, the things you’ve been meaning to accomplish, and the things you want to achieve.

4. Read over both lists and ask yourself

• Where are my goals in complete alignment with the things that really matter to me? (The items you highlighted.)

• Where are my goals out of alignment with the things that really matter to me?

• When I read through my goals, what things that really matter to me come to mind that didn’t pop up when I was making my gratitude list?

• What feels clear to me?

• What feels “itchy” or not quite right?

Use this technique formally and informally as you contemplate what you’re grateful for, reflect on your challenges and accomplishments or plan for your future.
Let me know what you come up with!
Happy Thanksgiving!!!