Daily Gratitude: If you can make this your daily intention and revisit it frequently throughout your day, I think you will be surprised at the results. Remembering this often will guide your actions so that instead of clicking on that game app on your phone, you might pick up a book instead. Or maybe you’ll get up and go for a walk. Before you click on the app, ask yourself how much playing that game is going to add to your satisfaction level tonight? Monitor yourself and your feelings and use them to guide your behaviors all day long. Sometimes you may need to click on it because you need to relax your mind and if that’s the way that works for you, have at it. But if you’re just doing it out of habit, take some moments to think about what it will feel like when you go to bed. As Dr Rob Gilbert says – give yourself the pillow test. How do you feel about your day when you lay your head on the pillow.

Daily Gratitude: What if you were to focus on the “overcomers” instead of the thing needing overcoming? How different would your outlook be? It might take a little more effort but wouldn’t it be worth it in the long run? I think so. Instead of thinking how insurmountable a mountain is, I’d rather concentrate on those people who have actually reached the summit…or even those who have tried. At least they got off their butts and got out there to attempt it. They didn’t just sit around lamenting the fact that the mountain “is really hard to climb”. It’s a mountain after all and they are all hard to climb. Some more than others. But you’ll never know anything about it unless you investigate and what better to investigate than the ones who’ve actually been on that mountain. With the internet now, you should be able to find someone who has done something at least similar to what you want to do. Stop saying “i can’t” or “it’s too hard”. Even if you don’t want to do that thing yourself, you may be able to learn a lot from someone who has done it. I learn a lot from the 314 mile race across Tennessee. Do I have to wait a year each time before I can apply what I learned? No. Much of what i learned is applicable to life in general so I can use that knowledge every day. Flip the switch. Next time you say that something is too hard, immediately stop yourself and ask “I wonder who’s done this”. And go online and find out! It will change your outlook on everything.

Daily Gratitude: Sometimes it’s hard to remember this. We just want to quit trying because it seems nothing is going right. This happened to me in the 2025 Vol State race. Absolutely nothing was going right. I wanted to quit and I tried but the Meat Wagon Lady wouldn’t let me. So I had to keep going. I encountered more defeats in that one race than I ever had in my life. But because of her instincts and intuition I had to continue (yes some of it was being stubborn and wanting to say “I told you so” but that never happened). As such I was never defeated and I finished the race. Look at Thomas Edison and his inventing the light bulb – was it 13,000 or 14,000 times he tried and “failed?” He didn’t let all those defeats become his ultimate reality – total defeat. He kept on and we should too. It would be fun if instead of the routine emojis that people use they adopt a light bulb to use when they are trying to encourage someone to keep on going. That could then remind the person they are trying to encourage someone that had had a bad time to keep on going. Maybe even print out a light bulb and hang it around your house to remind you that a few defeats does not mean you’re defeated.