Life’s Too Short to Not Be Awesome

***I hope you like the picture. I did a search on “Awesome” and this is what came up.***

I was just sitting here thinking of what to write. To be honest, I was struggling a bit.

I was going to write about habits and Steve Jobs. I still will, but not this week. Because I got an inspiration. And when inspiration strikes, you just have to go with it.

In this case, “inspiration” has a name. That name is Jill.

Jill is Awesome

I’m what’s called a solopreneur. That is a trendy way of saying that I am self-employed and it’s just me. I’m trying to make a go of this business idea that I have of helping nonprofit executives make their own lives more awesome.

I’m currently working at FUSE Co-working. It is Awesome, as independently verified by this awesome article by Symmetry50.

Jill is one of my coworkers. She always asks me how my day is going. That makes me feel good.

I always reply, “Awesome!”

“Are you really Awesome every day?”

Today was a little different. After my customary reply, Jill challenged me.

“You always answer that you’re ‘awesome.’ Are you really awesome every day?”

I stopped to think about it. I aspire to be genuine and sincere in my life. I don’t want to just reflexively answer “awesome” out of habit.

After a moment of contemplation, my answer was, “Yeah, I’m feeling pretty awesome right now.”

24/7 Awesomeness

Of course, I don’t feel awesome 24/7. This morning in the shower I dropped a nearly-full shampoo bottle on my pinkie toe. It hurt bad.

Really bad.

Bad enough I thought it might be broken.

That wasn’t awesome.

Earlier this week the air conditioner in our house wasn’t working. The heat index was 114 degrees (air conditioners only stop working when it’s really hot, you know). It was 92 inside our house at 11 pm.

That wasn’t awesome.

Deliberate gratitude helps me feel Awesome

Hal Elrod has a book called The Miracle Morning (affiliate link). I highly recommend it.

You can hear Hal’s remarkable story on @PatFlynn’s podcast here. Hal also has his own podcast that I recommend. Except he doesn’t tell his own story on his own podcast. Cause…you know…he’s interviewing his guests.

Hal advocates having a morning routine. I have a morning routine, and I challenge my clients to do so as well.

A prominent part of my morning routine is to think about what you are grateful for. I don’t mean to brag, but I have hundreds of things to be grateful for. You do too.

I know you share one of them with me: I was granted one more day on this earth when I woke up.

Here’s a few others:

I have a beautiful, loving, and patient wife.
I have 4 healthy, smart children.
I have a network of family and friends who love and support me.
I have a roof over my head to keep my dry.
I have food in my house.
Our family enjoys a certain degree of luxury (like television, couches, pretty stuff hung on the walls of our house).
I have every reason to think I’ll get through this day without even one moment of fearing for my life.

I could go on and on. You could too.

Even the bad stuff reminds me how my life is awesome.

Take the shampoo/toe situation. I have toes on which to drop shampoo bottles. I have income to purchase the bottle involved in said toe-dropping. I have a shower to stand in. I have access to clean, plentiful water.

Or take the air conditioner. After all, I have an air conditioner to be fixed. And I’m grateful for the guy who came and fixed it. And I’m grateful it only took 2 days instead of a week or a month.

Gratitude is like a virus

It’s kinda weird. Since starting my deliberate morning routine of gratitude, it has grown inside me and taken over my whole being. Like a virus.

I’m incapable of not feeling grateful. I’m grateful I was able to ride my bike to work this morning. I’m grateful it wasn’t oppressively hot. I’m grateful it wasn’t raining.

Deliberate gratitude has made me more aware of the blessings in my life, both simple and profound.

Simple: we only think of the tires on our car (or bike) when they’re flat. How about being grateful for the 99% of the time they are not.

Profound: I’ve already referenced my children. What a miracle that is. A miracle that a friend of mine and his wife desperately wish they could experience, but sadly cannot.

Deliberate gratitude innoculates us from being complacent. From taking the good stuff for granted.

Gratitude also helps us process adversity more effectively. Research shows the best marriages have a 5 to 1 ratio of positive to negative interactions. I’m convinced the same is true for our internal self-talk–our relationship with ourselves.

Some people can’t control being sad

Clinical depression is a real thing. I understand this because–like a bull in a china shop–it has run through my home and busted some stuff up.

If you are among the 18% of Americans who suffer from depression and/or anxiety disorder, know that I am empathetic. I in no way mean to trivialize the battle you are fighting.

But, the other 82% of us have more control over our day-to-day mood than we realize. A healthy dose of deliberate gratitude will go a long way to staving off feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.

And…just FYI…deliberate gratitude is often used as a therapy for clinical depression as well.

Life’s too short to not be awesome

Maybe a morning ritual of gratitude doesn’t help. Maybe there’s a structural issue in your life causing it to not be awesome.

If so, consider how you might change it. If the mere thought of change freaks you out, take solace–change is probably easier than you think.

The best place to start is by finding someone to talk to. Feel free to reach out to me if you think I can help. I offer affordable coaching on a short or medium term basis. So do lots of people.

If you’re thinking about a job change, check out this helpful article from Fast Company. It offers a practical exercise to help you determine if that is the route you want to take.

What do you think?

Have you tried being deliberate about gratitude? How has it changed things for you? I’d love to hear about it! Send me a message or hop over to the Nonprofit Wizards Facebook page!

Darren Macfee is the founder of the Nonprofit Wizards. His life purposes are to dispense homespun wisdom, grill a perfect meal for his family, and help nonprofit leaders create amazing results for and through their organizations. Follow him on Twitter @NPWizards or send him a note. Be sure to sign up for alerts so you never miss a post.