 Thanksgiving is almost upon us. What are you thankful for every day? Welcome back and congratulations on taking one more step towards becoming one of the great leaders of tomorrow Thanksgiving is just a few days away, and we've all got a lot to be thankful for Personally, I'm grateful for my family my friends all the great people I get to do business with here in Las Vegas and the nice life that I have We've all heard a lot in recent years about how practicing gratitude can improve our lives and the lives of those around us I know from personal experience how hard it can be to stay focused on being grateful when we're overwhelmed with all the Things that the world is throwing at us That's why it's important that we set up a daily practice for gratitude that keeps it at the front of our mind until we Build a strong habit and become second nature to us There really are a lot of benefits to practicing gratitude It makes us feel better about ourselves and it improves our relationships with other people Just so you don't think I'm making this all up Amy Moran wrote in psychology today about seven benefits that gratitude gives us First being grateful can help us build relationships with new people Saying thank you to someone you just met even for something as simple as holding a door Can make them actually more likely to want to have an ongoing relationship with you Practicing gratitude actually improves our physical health people who are grateful report having fewer aches and pains than others And I don't know why this works But people who practice gratitude on a regular basis report being more healthy than those who don't we can improve our mental health and reduce A whole range of toxic emotions like envy regret frustration and anger just by being thankful There's research that shows that practicing gratitude increases happiness and reduces depression Practicing gratitude helps us engage in more pro-social behavior even when those around us aren't acting as kindly People who are grateful have more empathy and sensitivity for others and are less likely to engage in revenge when they feel wronged Grateful people sleep better to research shows that taking just a few minutes to jot down a few grateful Sentiments before going to bed can help us sleep better and longer Practicing gratitude helps us improve our self-esteem and reduces social comparison People who are grateful are less resentful towards others who have more money or better stuff than they do and are actually appreciative of those people's Accomplishments finally being grateful can help us reduce stress and overcome trauma a 2003 study showed that practicing gratitude was a key factor in helping people be resilient and overcome the stress of the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks Now that you know the benefits of gratitude, let's talk about setting up your own daily gratitude practice What works for someone else might not work for you So it's important to choose a routine that sets you up for success Rather than list a bunch of things that you should put into your daily practice I'm going to tell you about my practice Then give you some tips at the end on how to build the discipline to do your practice every day So my daily practice starts pretty much right after I get up I take the dog out to play for a few minutes that I sit in my favorite chair and meditate for about 20 minutes to get Myself at a nice open frame of mind After that I pick up my journal which is right next to the chair I do my daily gratitude practice in so that it's easy and then I sit down and I write down at least three things that I'm grateful for They don't have to be big things Sometimes it's just a nice experience that I had the day before or sometimes It's just that we're having a nice day or someone that I met that I'm grateful I met doesn't have to be big cosmic things just things that you're grateful for After I write down the three things that I'm grateful for I write down some things that would make my day great Not really to do list kind of things but really more How do I want to behave how do I want to portray myself as a person throughout the day? And once I've gotten those things written down I close my journal and I move on for the rest of the day and get started at the end of the day I pick up my journal again I open it up and I write down three things that happened that were great that day and they could be just like in the morning Things that were great experiences or a great conversation that I had with someone or maybe even I just had a great Workout that day, but I write down three things that were great that happened that day and because I'm not perfect I also write down at least one thing that I feel like I could have done better or maybe worked a little harder on or found Some way to improve upon throughout the day after I've done that I close my journal I pick it up. I take it I walk it over to my chair where I do my morning gratitude practice and I leave it there So it's nice and easy in the morning So now that you have an example to work with let's talk about building your daily gratitude practice And there's a reason we call it practicing gratitude It's not easy and it doesn't come automatically Just like an athlete or an artist who has to spend every day working on their craft to get the benefits of it We have to spend every day practicing gratitude to get those benefits as well The most important thing to remember when we're building a new practice like this is that as human beings It takes most of us 45 to 60 days to build a habit So if you're watching this the week of Thanksgiving and you want to get the benefits of gratitude Commit to yourself to practicing gratitude daily throughout the new year and you'll start to see those benefits Secondly developing a practice like this works best if we do it every single day I know that can be overwhelming when you're first getting started So commit to doing three days this week four days next week Five days a week after that and so on until you're doing it every day And if you miss a day don't get discouraged and quit just pick it up again the next day as if nothing had happened The last tip I have for you is that a practice like this works best if we do it every day at the same time each day Now sometimes people have variable work schedules, and they can't always do things at the same time every day That's okay Just block out the time you can do it each day follow up on it, and that'll help you build the habit too Practicing gratitude can bring us more inner peace and improve the relationships with the people we care about in our lives It can be challenging to develop that habit to the point where it's second nature to us But there are some techniques we can use to set ourselves up for success It's not always easy practicing gratitude, but the benefits are clearly worth it If you found this helpful Please share it with a friend or co-worker and make sure to follow us on Twitter LinkedIn and Facebook Click off on that globe to the right that'll get you subscribed to our email list And that'll bring all of our content direct to your inbox If you have any business or leadership questions connect with us on social media or email us at info at evilgeniusleadership.com Thanks for watching today. I really appreciate it and remember the future is out there lead the way