The word gratitude has been pretty popular ever since the pandemic. There is no better way to remind us what to be reminded of how thankful to be after so much was taken away in a given time. The idea of gratitude or being thankful for what you have in life will help you become more present, allowing you to have more of a positive mindset, affecting every aspect of your life positively. As a result, self-help books and those alike will tell you to have a gratitude journal.
So you get one, and you write down what you’re thankful for; anybody with an ounce of willpower to get better has tried this at least once in their life. Typical answers are your wife, kids, house, Disney plus, the inspirational words of Denzel Washington; you name it. Before you know it, this exercise becomes repetitive. You stop reflecting and do it just to get it done, thereby not affecting your thought process or altering the chemicals in your brain to become a better version of yourself.
With everyone trying to keep up with the Joneses and Instagram, Facebook, and social media in general (Although it can be used for good), I think people have forgotten that failure is simply part of growth; it is part of life. How we choose to look at failures, I believe, is what will make or break us. Being thankful for your failures and the lessons learned through your shortcomings can shift your focus on how to get better one step at at time. Using a gratitude journal to do this and being thankful for the lessons you have learned through failure will not only remind us of how to be a better version of ourselves but also help us be more present, something that we all need more of in this life.