GRATEFUL WRITERS
Make the Big Bucks
So, you’ve heard all the yammer about how the road to success is opened by being grateful. You’ve seen it repeated enough times that you believe it is true. The more grateful you are the more you will receive. Sounds easy doesn’t?
We’ve all watched the movie of the Grinch who stole Christmas and we’ve seen him switch from a selfish uncaring green monster to a warm and caring fuzzy ball of love. With the flick of a switch okay he saved Mary Lou who and brought the stolen gifts back to Whoville. He even told his dog that he loved it. The story does not go on to the next day or the day after that, or all the days that followed. The thing is that the habit of being grateful does not magically appear from an event and suddenly become a huge part of your personality. Habits don’t work that way.
A habit or habitual activity is a mental muscle, and like any muscle it takes practice to develop. If I were going to become a baseball player I would not hit a couple balls and take the rest of the week off. I would know that I needed to practice every day to become good at what I wanted to do.
If you listen to the flash success promoters you hear that being successful is simple. All you have to do to attain success is be grateful for what you have. Well Bucko I’m here to tell you that being grateful is not as easy as it sounds.
To make it work you have to go a little deeper and clarify your thinking on the issue. As with most things that sound easy, there is an underlying pile of work that is required. Being a grateful writer is no exception. Is the work worth it? Only you can answer that.
Here’s one method that I’ve found handy. Since I have accumulated a stack of post-it notes, I have chosen to post what I am grateful for on them. I stick these notes to mirrors, my white board, my cork board and pretty much everywhere else I can think of. To keep it lively I write screwy stuff on my grateful post-its too and I explain on the back of the note why I am grateful for it. I post stuff like “I’m grateful for termites” because the woods would be full of deadfall trees without them. Another reads “I’m grateful for earthquakes” They remind me that this rock we live on makes no promises about tomorrow. “I’m grateful for broken dishes” they remind me to treasure the dishes that are whole.
Will this make me a successful writer? Will it cause buckets of cash to land in my yard? Darned if I know but It sure makes me feel good, and that’s half the battle.
