Daily Gratitude: Isn’t this so true? When something goes well, we spend little to no time assessing the small details. You can see this in race reports and debriefings. When things don’t go as well as planned or even as we thought it should, we pay much more time trying to analyze why. That magic word, “why”. And this is a good thing. Analysis requires looking at everything that happened because you know that “a” affected “b” and so on down the line. I think that’s a problem with all that’s going on in the world today. People don’t seem to consider the second and third order effects of massive, sweeping changes. That’s why, even though we often make fun of nerds, the data collectors and statistic geeks are the MVPs when an organization wants to make change. And since you are part of the human race organization and head your own department (if you understand internal family systems), you have to know how changing one “part” in your IFS will impact another “part” or group of parts. Even if you’re not into IFS, your organization can be your family, your school, your neighborhood, etc. instead of getting upset maybe we can stop for 90 seconds to let those stress chemicals dissipate and then start seeing if you can figure out what made you upset and what you can do to change it- or change your response. Here’s where “what if” is helpful. Once again think about your home. If something in your foundation wasn’t attended to properly, how secure is it? A few missing shingles on your roof? So what? Well, you know what. Think of that next time you’re too upset or too busy to do a thorough analysis of something.

Daily Gratitude: It’s natural for us to steer away from frightening things. That’s called survival. However, what my brain thinks is frightening is not necessarily the same thing your brain does. We interpret everything based on our previous experiences. Even though I’m 76 years old, my brain is still using its childhood data bank to make decisions about events, objects and people. Since my childhood was filled with daily fear and uncertainty, it has programmed itself to think that many things are dangerous and therefore frightening. I have worked hard to reprogram many of the data points but so many still exist – primarily because I was never brave enough to step into those scary places to find out they weren’t actually scary. This is one regret I have. I could have experienced so much in such a different way had I learned to do that. I encourage all of you to do this. I am enjoying the process now as I attempt to conquer the darkness. I can tell you that your life will be more enriched if you try it. And what you do in the endeavor will be a great model for those who watch you. That is the mark of leadership.

Daily Gratitude: Having just finished my training as a death doula, i thought this was such an important insight. At the end of life is when you’ll know how precious life is. Why not learn to appreciate it now even if things aren’t going that great right now. Take a few seconds to look up and simply say “I am grateful for my life”. Try to do that several times a day. Take some deep breaths and feel the life coming into your lungs and circulating throughout your body. Think about how this happens over and over every second and minute of your life. You don’t even have to be involved. It just happens. What a miracle. Know that like the sun, things will go up and down. There is change every day and we just take it for granted. Let’s pay more attention and show our gratitude each time we do.