Hi Friends,
I used to have a daily tasks planner in the form of a folding page which my brother taught me and I followed it across my MBA to capture the tasks for each day of the week. It was really cool how you can convert a piece of paper into an eight pager diary form (will post a video to create it) to jot down all the assignments, tests and other things you want to do and need to check on. I have followed that over the years from 2003 to around 2015 or so. I didn't use it afterwards as I started using a diary along with in between an app which is now closed to jot down all the contests I have won on Twitter and Facebook and whether the goodies have been received by me or not. For some of the goodies I have chased up with the concerned brands for more than 6 months too but I have never let it go if they have done any contest and declared the winners, goodies need to come. I have only missed some of the goodies not received because of them stole by the courier delivery boys or at the courier centre itself. To counter that I started giving the courier boys some of the items from time to time on a regular basis but then another problem got raised when one of the courier boys wanted a Superdry t-shirt which I also had 2 at that time won through their online contests only as the price was around Rs. 2000 each. Over the years, the quality has declined and improved from time to time with someone facing the heat as million of packages change hands.
Felling grateful about the stuff/people/places/family/friends you know and have been granted by the Universe is the most powerful feeling in the world. I too started writing a daily gratitude journal sincerely for the last 3-4 years where I note down the top 5 things I am grateful for on a daily basis. Writing a daily journal gives you consistency and something to look forward to like spending time with your own thoughts and yourself. You can write anything your heart and mind says. I generally write about being thankful about my blog, about my daily walks, daily prayers, family and friends from time to time and also about special days like Salary day, birthdays and days when I receive some new gadgets to unbox and review. It really helps me connect the dots for some inspirations which I have got but never thought about again. I always try to think about all the things or experiences that I wanted in life and see in amazement that I was thinking about it some days back and it has converted into reality despite not mentioning the same in the journal too. This process is called co-creation where the universe listens to your subconscious calls and immediately delivers the same. It has also happened to me whereby I declared in my journal as a wish to be in
Singapore by a certain date a year ahead in future and I was there on the same date enjoying the Orchard Road shopping mall. Another instance that comes to my mind is about wanting to meet one of the Bollywood heroines and identifying whom I want to meet on a Sunday afternoon at my house in London, and you won't believe I was standing next to her on Tuesday 530pm and that was
Deepika Padukone and I think it's all because of my gratitude journaling habit.
For the best part is that it doesn't matter what kind of diary you use - expensive or cheap ones as I have used the A6/A7 sized diaries I received from the various launch events. Only one or two I have bought so far from the China mall in Fordsburg or any other shop. My current red coloured one is from the Huawei launch event is going to end in 3 months time and then I will find a good one with a good paper that can take the
Parker fountain pen's ink. I have been using the gratitude model from the first time I watched the secret in 2007 to 2011 where I will use A5 sized notepads. It used to be in a different format where I used to assign a page to a week and freely flow the text without any order or numbering. In 2011, I moved to Bilt Weekly Planner and carried on till 2013 and still have them which really helps me to remember what happened in my life during those years and carried on with the weekly format in free-flowing form too. I am also grateful to the diaries that I write in and the pens I am using to help me write it. I have shared them on my Instagram posts from time to time.
Gratitude is the single biggest force that can move mountains if done with faith and heart. You have to remain humble all the time and I have seen in my life whenever I have deviated from being humble, I found myself lying in the dirt immediately. It's these sensors that I have developed to keep my attitude in check but as life happens so does your mood changes and irritation crops in. The only way is to move your focus to gratefulness during those times as compared to the success or failure you are facing. I can narrow down the benefits which I have received writing the daily gratitude journal as it keeps my attitude in check for sure and I feel happy all the time. These journals really helped me gain an understanding of my own value system and how much I admire the small stuff and waste my energy on getting and keeping them. Since this wisdom has come to me, I have significantly reduced my unnecessary items and keep giving them away to charity or to someone who wants them. If I am feeling angry these journals really tell me that I am not able to write even a single line, then I just browse through the previous pages and feel good about those days and it internally boosts me up to face the challenge and struggles of my mind.
I kept changing the style of writing a gratitude journal over the years to finally reach the point of writing my daily 5 things. Earlier I have written 100 people/places/things to be grateful for which used to take a lot of time and also the top 3 things to be grateful for every day. Also, I make it a point to keep changing the topics for which I am grateful so that I don't mention the same things again and again. Last year, I thought of doing things like writing gratitude about the people/places/friends/family/things etc as per the dates of the month. It meant that on the 1st day of January or any month for that matter, I will write 1 and as the date progresses so will be my list. That way you write about 465 grateful topics at the end of the month whereas if you do daily 5 you will only reach 150. Freestyle format is also one of the ways when I feel heavy in my heart to pour down my feelings and thoughts on the paper. It has given me much more than any other format in the long run and I continue to do so as and when I feel like in a separate journal or sometimes instead of writing 5, I only write about 1 in a free-flowing format to take out all the anger and pain in my heart and Let it Go!
It depends now on how you want to take it forward based on the dates of the month or daily 5 or a freestyle format? The time to write based on the dates is of course higher but the impact will also be huge in your life. I will try the same for sure too in one of the months and most probably Feb-22. What about you? To end with another instance that comes to my mind was to meet some of the Bollywood movie stars and it came to reality whereby in a single week I met a lot of them in Mumbai Blackberry Sharp Nights and Delhi in separate launch events. That's all because of how grateful I felt internally in my heart and mind to attract whatever I wanted in life! I wish the same for you and let's make it a reality!
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