Daily Gratitude: This is the most important concept for changing your life. It goes along with all the posts about how your thoughts can change your life. Once you change enough of your thoughts, you’ll have changed your mindset. First, though, you have to be aware of what you’re thinking and what your mindset is. Do you know what your mindset really is? Or do you have a bunch of mindsets depending on the circumstances? I used to have an entire box of them. I’d pull out the one that fit the situation. All that did was confuse everything and deplete me of energy. I won’t go into how that “box” of different mindsets is related to IFS (Internal Family Systems) but each mindset was from a different “part” of me. Anyway, once i learned to calm my nervous system and talk with my parts, things got more in alignment. The key was being aware of the many components and then working to figure out where they came from. Once you know what’s going on, you’ll smack your forehead and say “well, of course, no wonder I was so confused. Now I can see the thoughts and ideas that belong together and I can create more of them.” This doesn’t happen overnight but it can happen if you want it to. Keep track of your thoughts and how you approach different situations. Decide what you like and what you don’t like and work to improve the concepts you do like and eliminate the ones you don’t. You do have control over your thoughts. It just doesn’t feel like it sometimes.

Daily Gratitude: For people my age you might balk at this because you wonder if you’ll even be around in 10 years. Well, you may be but if it seems daunting, change it to 2 or 3 or 5 or whatever number you want. The point is that this goes along with the post on making progress and the one on regrets. Start today and choose what you want out of life. You can change at any age. I have changed more in the past 4 years than in the previous 72 (mostly due to Internal Family Systems). You all know about the Tennessee race (Vol State) and how I tried to do it unsupported for 4 attempts and couldn’t finish without a crew. Once i realized it was because of my lack of mental discipline, i spent a year intensely studying sports psychology and mental discipline. I changed. And it paid off. I was 72. So never think it’s too late to choose your life. Sure you can’t change what’s already gone before but 1) you can change how you think about it and 2) you can choose something different from this point on. Situations and conditions are different from when you were young but your attitude is what will determine how you move forward now. Don’t be stagnant. Move forward in some manner.

Daily Gratitude: Regrets are common at this time of year. But what good do they do? Does feeling regret change anything? Does it absolve you from having done (or not done) that thing you think you should have (or not have)? No, it doesn’t. If there’s something you wish you’d done differently, list out what’s stopping you from doing it now? Also write out what benefits you’re getting from regretting something? You may be surprised to see that feeling regretful feels like you did something right – not the original thing but the regret. You may think others will think you’re a good person because you’re expressing regret. It’s kind of like a prisoner expressing remorse and hoping they will get parole. Tell yourself to stop it. Either learn from it and change now or move on to something on. Don’t fill up your mind with all these packages of regret. Your mind is not like a big Amazon prime truck with boxes of regret here and there packed to the limit. Fill your mind with action items and emotions such as love and caring.