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Welcome to the Super Easy 30 Day Gratitude Challenge. It’s the one thing you can do today that is guaranteed to change your life forever. You will grow more positive, happy, at peace, confident and your life will improve in unmeasurable ways.
How do I know? Because I HAVE DONE IT MYSELF.
Practising Gratitude every day has changed me so much, I see life in a completely different way now. It has allowed me to see past my problems, my pain, my anger, to see the good in life.
And I promise it will do the same for you.
When you practise Gratitude on a regular basis, it will lead to feeling positive, which in turn leads to confidence, and self-esteem. They all go hand in hand, so if you want to truly be confident, have high self-esteem, overcome all those doubts and negative thoughts that hold you back, if you want to be a positive person, then start with GRATITUDE. Otherwise, your mind will continue to see only the negative things in your life, and what sort of life is that?
How this works
Either read this page and follow along as you wish…
OR
Sign up for the super easy email course I have designed. It’s free, easy to follow, uncomplicated and straightforward. And best of all, it’s only 5 min a day.
Gratitude makes you feel more positive and relaxed and happy. You see your life in a different way, it allows you to see past your problems, your pain, your anger, and see the good in life and in other people.
So if you want to become more positive, relaxed, happy and confident, then why not start with GRATITUDE.
How The 30 Day Gratitude Challenge Works
What you’ll need
First of all, decide on a time of day you’ll be doing your Practice. You’ll need about 5-10min. I suggest you start small, and make it an easy task to accomplish. By doing so you are more likely to do it every day, and doing it every day will make it a habit. And as we all know, habits are easy, they don’t require effort or willpower.
My suggestion is either before you start your day (prepares you mentally and sets you up for a positive “good” day), or before you go to bed (you go to bed with peace on your mind, you end your day on a positive note – good for those people who lie awake replaying the day’s events).
You’ll need to set a timer. I use a mix of the HABIT app (free on iPhone and Android), and the normal reminder app on my iPhone. Be sure to set it for a Daily Recurrence.
Something to write with. When I started I used the Day One app (free on iPhone and Android), however, these days I prefer good old pen and paper. Any notebook will do, but I find it useful to look back on what I’ve written previously, months or weeks ago, and I find I’m more likely to write in a pretty notebook with a pretty pen and KEEP that notebook. But make it small so you can carry it around with you.
If you don’t like HABIT there are tons of free Habit Tracking apps out there, and Lifehack has already made a list for you, how kind of them.
How to start your Gratitude Practice
Week 1 Day 1
It’s pretty easy. Once your reminder goes off, step away from what you are doing, and write down one thing you are grateful for. It can be anything, from the coffee tasting nice this morning, to your commute to work being uneventful. Don’t go over your allotted 5min. For the first week let’s stick to spending only 5min on this task. You are trying to create a new habit so don’t make it so difficult you want to avoid it. Make it as easy as possible to complete.
Day 2
Do the same as yesterday but write down two things you are grateful for. It can be the same as yesterday but try to add that 2nd thing you are grateful for.
Day 3
Do the same as Day 2, but now write down three things you are grateful for. Again, it doesn’t matter if the first two are repeats from yesterday.
Day 4
You can guess what’s next right?
Write down 4 things you are grateful for. Remember to only stick to 5min for this task.
Day 5
Write down 5 things you are grateful for.
Day 6
Deliberately write down that you are grateful that you have managed to do 5 days of gratitude as the first item on your list, then add 5 more things. So the list should total 6.
Day 7
Thank yourself for completing 7 days. Tell yourself how grateful you are for your mind and body showing the patience and willpower to complete these past 7 days of Gratitude.Write down that you are proud of yourself.
I am proud of myself!
Now take a moment and read everything you wrote this week. Take a moment to let it sink in, all those things you are grateful for. Give yourself a pat on the back.
Take a breath.
FEEL IT, the intention, the gratitude behind the intention.
At the end of Week 1
Well done, you’ve now completed your first week. You should already be finding that it’s easy to just take 5min every day to jot down a quick few things.
My list from my first few days of gratitude included all sorts of things, from the coffee I paid for that morning, to the socks on my feet. I wrote down that I was grateful the sun was shining, I was healthy, I had a loving family who all wanted me to be happy and successful (you’d be surprised how rare that is), and that I have a job.
When I started this, I used to do this before going to bed and some nights I would be so tired, all I could do was repeat most of the things I wrote down yesterday.
The beauty of practising gratitude daily is that even when you are repeating things, it just reaffirms that you ARE grateful. And not just grateful for those things, but grateful in general.
I realised that no matter what I wrote on the list, the fact was that the INTENTION of being grateful made the list of items largely irrelevant. As long as you are writing down something, it reminds your subconscious that you are indeed, very grateful.
And when you feel grateful, you relax, because you are starting to realise that life is not nearly as awful as you might have thought it was.
Week 2
Review first if you want to continue doing your Practice of Gratitude at the same time as last week, so if you were doing it in the morning, have a moment and consider if want to try it before going to bed instead. And vice versa.
Also, this week we’ll up the 5mins of allocated time to 7mins. So this week, once your alarm goes off, take 7mins to complete your task. While 5min wasn’t much, once you go over 5min, to ensure you don’t sit there for 20min thinking what to write down, set a timer for 7min. Once the timer goes off, STOP.
If you have written nothing, that’s OK. This happens to me too. But you need to write something, so I suggest you write down that you are grateful for the notebook and pen you are using, or your phone if you are using an app like Day One.
The important thing is to write something because remember, it’s not the list of items that is important, it’s the intention behind the list. GRATITUDE.
Week 2 Day 1
Remember we are doing 7mins total for our practice this week.
So when your alarm sounds, set your timer on your phone or computer for 7mins. When the 7mins are done then it’s done, you STOP.
Now write down 2 things you are grateful for. BUT, today it has to be 2 things you have not yet listed. It has to be new and original things you are grateful for. Stretch that brain a bit.
Day 2
Same instruction as yesterday, but write down 2 new things again, that you have not yet listed. 2 brand new things you are grateful for!
Dig deep.
Day 3
By now you should know what I’m going to say, write down 2 brand new things to be grateful for.
I bet it’s starting to get a bit harder now.
Day 4
Easy day today.
Review the previous 3 days. You should have 6 original and unique things you are grateful for.
Today I want you to rewrite those 6 things into one list, stop and really FEEL each and every single thing. Read it out loud if necessary. Ponder each one for a moment.
Remember the point is the intention and feeling behind practising gratitude, not the list itself. By making the list, by thinking of things, you are forced to also feel the intention itself.
Day 5
Write down the 6 things from the last 4 days plus one more thing that you are grateful for. It’s OK if you are now starting to repeat things again.
Day 6
Same as Day 5.
Write down the 6 things from the last 4 days plus one more thing that you are grateful for. It’s OK if you are now starting to repeat things again.
Day 7
Thank yourself for completing another 7 days. Tell yourself how grateful you are for your mind and body showing the patience and willpower to complete these past 14 days of Gratitude.Write down that you are proud of yourself.
I am proud of myself!
Now take a moment and read everything you wrote the past two weeks. Take a moment to let it sink in, all those things you are grateful for. Give yourself a pat on the back.
Take a breath.
FEEL IT, the intention, the gratitude behind the intention.
At the end of Week 2
CONGRATULATIONS!
You’ve completed 14 days already! Yai for you.
I’m so happy for you, because I know the positive impact this is having on you already, because I remember how it impacted my life and my thoughts when I started practising Gratitude every day.
Let’s stop for a moment and understand the enormity of what you have done these past 2 weeks.
- By now you are well on your way to forming a new habit.
- You are deliberately setting time aside each day for yourself, and your own mental health.
- You are changing the way you see the world. You are changing yourself.
- You’ve made a leap in your own life where you proactively seek to better yourself, your mind, your health and your life.
- You are changing the way you THINK so you can become stronger and more confident.
- You are working on yourself, and that is more than most people can say.
- You have seen how much you have to be thankful for and by now you should start to see new things every day as you go through your day because you are changing your “default settings”.
- You’ve learned a new skill.
- Most people are never taught a better way of “thinking”, but you are now teaching yourself.
- You are linking the words you write on paper to feeling, emotions, and intention.
- You are living INTENTIONALLY!
Week 3
For week 3 we’re moving to doing 10mins each day. Again, you can do this in the morning, or the evening before bedtime, you can do this at your desk if you want. But it’s important to set that time aside from your usual activities and focus on this exclusively for 10mins. This and nothing else.
From now on, write down anything you want. It can be original, it can be repeats of last week. It can be anything. It can be 1 thing or it can be 100 things.
Anything.
But you have to do this every day this week for 10mins.
At the end of Week 3
CONGRATULATIONS!
Three weeks have passed already.
Don’t worry if you are skipping a day here or there, what matters is that you get back on that horse, and simply continue the practice.
Do NOT try to be perfect. Just try to do this as regularly as possible. A little bit done often and regularly will go further than a massive effort once in a while.
There is no right or wrong way, there is only what works for you. Feel free to tweak the process if you want, or simply continue my instructions.
Stop often to examine how you are changing on the inside.
Week 4
This week, we will be doing 15mins each day.
The same goes as last week.
Write down anything you want. It can be original, it can be repeats of the last few weeks. It can be anything. It can be 1 thing or it can be 100 things.
Anything.
But you have to do this every day this week for 15mins.
At the end of Week 4
CONGRATULATIONS!
You’ve completed 28 days already! Yai for you.
Let’s stop for a moment and review again the enormity of what you have done these past 4 weeks.
- You have formed a new habit.
- You are deliberately setting time aside each day for yourself, and your own mental health.
- You are changing the way you see the world. You are changing yourself.
- You’ve made a leap in your own life where you proactively seek to better yourself, your mind, your health and your life.
- You are changing the way you THINK so you can become stronger and more confident.
- You are working on yourself, and that is more than most people can say.
- You have seen how much you have to be thankful for and by now you should start to see new things every day as you go through your day because you are changing your “default settings”.
- You’ve learned a new skill.
- Most people are never taught a better way of “thinking”, but you are now teaching yourself.
- You are linking the words you write on paper to feeling, emotions, and intention.
- You are living INTENTIONALLY!
Day 29 and Day 30
Take the same 15mins as the past week each day, and simply continue as usual.
You have a new habit, a new skill. So all you have to do is continue what you have been doing for the past 4 weeks.
By now you might feel that 15mins are not enough. I am doing 25mins these days and to be honest, it goes so fast I don’t even notice it. And even on days I don’t deliberately take that time I set aside, when my alarm goes off, I quickly remind myself of one thing I’m proud of, or I remind myself that I am worth it, that I am happy and relaxed and positive and I feel grateful even if for today, I have not made that list.
Most of all, I want you to feel proud of yourself. Write that down often and frequently.
Be grateful for your own mind and brain and body. Write that down often and frequently.
You deserve to be happy and healthy and confident and positive and relaxed and at peace. Write that down often and frequently.
The End
Well done again.
You’ve reached the end of your 30 Day Challenge.
I hope you will continue this, if not every day, then certainly in times of need.
Maybe every now and then when you are feeling yourself tip into negativity take a moment and restart the Practice of Gratitude until you see a positive change in your mindset again.
Think of it like taking medicine. You don’t always have to take it, but it’s good to keep it in the bathroom cupboard and take a spoonful every now and then when you have a sore throat. Then you take it once day until the sore throat goes away and you are all better.
Good luck for the future. You’ve gained a valuable skill in changing your world by changing how you see it, and if you haven’t realised this yet, you’ve also learned how to change your feelings and emotions.
Like redirecting a stream of water, you can now redirect your thoughts, your mindset and your emotions from a negative point of view to a positive point of view.
As always, be proud of what you have done, because changing yourself is something most people never consider, nevermind actually achieve.
And finally, always, ALWAYS, be kind to yourself.
All my love.
