Why I Write 10 Things I Am Thankful For Each Day

Photo by Umar ben on Unsplash

For 18 months straight, when I woke up, I wrote down ten things for which I was thankful.

I filled several notebooks with my writings. Some days I would think of deep, philosophical things I was thankful for. On other days, I would be thankful for the sun, the moon, the planets, and the refrigerator. This was all I could come up with on that day. I suppose that I wasn’t into it that morning, but I didn’t want to break my thankfulness streak.

I’m not sure why I stopped because it always set me up for a positive day.

I even used this thankfulness exercise as I prepared to testify in court. I was a witness for the defense, as someone was suing the company I work for. The morning of my testimony, I remember sitting at the kitchen table with my coffee, as I worked on my list of 10 things. I remember writing “I am thankful that I am calm under pressure. I am thankful that being in court does make me nervous. And I remember writing that I was thankful I could tell the truth even if the other side’s attorney pushed hard for their client.

Not only did we end up winning, but our corporate attorney thanked me for my clear and concise testimony.

That made me feel good knowing he appreciated the job I did in court. I don’t know why I didn’t realize that I could do this type of preparation. The act of being thankful for each of these areas made me much more confident when I testified. And it made the outcome much more assured than it would have been had I just gotten up and went to court,

By investing 15 minutes in myself, I created a cascade of positive outcomes.

In the book, The Secret, the author suggests that you write out ten things each day for which you are thankful. It never dawned on me that I could be successful and only write 3 things each day. Wanting to “follow the rules,” I dutifully wrote out 10 things I was thankful for daily. My therapist pointed out this week that 10 seemed like a lot.

She asked, “If I committed to writing each day, wouldn’t 3 be as good as 10?”

And that’s when it hit me. I take the instructions and follow them. If the author says to write 10, I write out 10 each day. It doesn’t occur to me that I can have any input into the goal. I am committed to being successful and will do whatever is asked, and do my darnedest to make it successful.

I have never asked myself, what’s in it for me.

Yesterday, my therapist brought up the fact that I take people at face value. I have always started by seeing the best in people. However, if they deceive me once, I am less trustful the next time. And after the second time, I understand their true character and applied that information to my decision-making.

I do not automatically trust someone.

I am not naive, and I know that there are people who prey on others. My spiddy sense kicks in at times, even before my first encounter with some people. Even though I say I give people the benefit of the doubt when I first meet them, I still draw the line sometimes.

I get such a feeling as I begin to interact, that I automatically do not trust the person.

Unsolicited offers via text message or in a voice mail alert me to a possible fraud situation. Meeting some people for the first time, I just know that they cannot be trusted. Untruths seem to ooze from their bodies. And offers “to good to be true”, are almost always “to good to be true.”

So, while I am trusting beyond the norm, I am still not just saying yes without thinking.

While following directions is a trait that is a large part of me, I can see the value in not doing that all of the time. As I think about why I wrote 10 things I was thankful for, I know it was because the author said to write 10 things.

Now that my eyes are opened a bit, I can see that not all activities are black and white.

For instance, if I only wrote three things today, would the world end? What would be the cost of doing that? Would it change the course of my life? Would anyone other than me know? That’s most likely the reason I follow directions.

If I didn’t follow directions, I WOULD KNOW.

Once again, I am back to the 10 things I am thankful for today. I can write 3 or 5, 7 or 10. Each of these shows me I am committed to this action. It shows I see the benefits of this activity. And it allows me to set the tone for my day, regardless of how many thankful things I write down. I get to decide how many is enough.

So, I am off to write my 5 things I am thankful for today.